


Blessed by the Ocean, Chased by Fire

by KayLove12



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Twins, Baby Yue (Avatar), Baby Zuko (Avatar), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Enemies, Water Spirit, Yearning, best friend love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:00:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 72,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29237229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayLove12/pseuds/KayLove12
Summary: One is blessed by the Moon, one is blessed by the Ocean.In the Northern Water Tribe, twin princesses are given second chances at life by two Water Spirits. As they grow up, they learn their roles as the Princesses, who they are individually, and how they complete each other. Friends will become enemies, but everything will change when the Avatar arrives at the Northern Water Tribe gates.~Chapters 1-14: Yue & OC growing up / Zuko’s introduction to the series, Chapter 15: The Gaang arrives at the NWT~
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), The Gaang (Avatar) & Original Character(s), Yue & Original Character(s), Zuko (Avatar)/Original Character(s), Zuko (Avatar)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 96
Kudos: 74





	1. A Full Moon and Restless Sea

It was a frigid night within the walls of the Northern Water Tribe. Chief Arnook could tell Soma was ready to give up, after countless hours of trying to deliver their twin babies. As Arnook and his wife’s midwives pleaded with her for one more push, Soma gave birth to their twins, both baby girls. 

The look of pride and happiness changed into a look of panic and confusion as Soma’s midwives both took the babies to check for their vitals and to give them a sign they were healthy and alive. 

Both of their infant twins would not cry. Neither even opened their eyes, not even a peek. After the healers did everything they could for the twins, Soma and Arnook were told their twins were going to die. 

Chief Arnook went onto the balcony of the palace, and prayed to the Moon and Ocean spirits. He pleaded with the spirits to save their daughters’ lives. 

Looking out to the full moon and restless sea, Arnook suddenly thought of an idea; the Spirit Oasis.

Bringing the twins to the spirit oasis, Arnook and Soma took one of the twins in each of their arms and placed them into the pond water. 

Suddenly, the water radiated a blue glow. All at once, the two koi fish that lived in the pond started swimming towards the twins. 

The white fish swam to the first baby in Arnook’s arms and lightly hovered around her body, when suddenly the baby’s hair changed completely to white with one black strip of jet black hair. 

Following suit to the white fish’s movements, the black fish swam to the second baby in Soma’s arms and floated around the infant. Instantly, the second twin’s hair changed to jet black with a white strip, opposite to the first baby’s hair color. 

As the fish swam back to their infinite circling of each other, both of the twin’s eyes opened and they cried for this first time in their lives. 

Chief Arnook and Soma looked at each other, hugged their new family in a small bundle, and thanked the spirits that their twins were saved and alive. 

The newly parents were forever indebted to the Moon and Ocean spirits.

Arnook looked at Soma, and asked “What would you like to name our daughters?” 

His wife thought about it for a second. “Let us name our twin babies after the Moon and Ocean spirits.” She looked upon her baby with white hair in Arnook’s arms and said, “What about Yue?” 

Then she looked down at the baby in her arms with jet black hair and said, “and Lana?” 

Arnook kissed his wife on her forehead lovingly, and did not even have to consider it for another second. He gazed at the new beautiful additions to his family and responded to Soma, “I believe that is the least we can do, Yue and Lana are the perfect names for our baby girls.” 

They affectionately looked upon their babies, and knew their lives were forever changed from the blessings of the spirits. 

~ Seven Years Later ~

From the moment they were given second chances at life, the twins were inseparable. Yue and Lana were yin and yang to each other.

If it wasn’t for each of their very distinctive hair colorings and Lana’s slightly darker blue eyes, Arnook and Soma swore they would never be able to tell them apart. 

Yue and Lana did everything together, and developed a sense for each other’s emotions and feelings. 

Like most twins, one look from the other, they could easily tell what the other was thinking. They often had conversations without even talking. 

There were countless times that the girls were in conversation with someone, and they would say something in response exactly the same at the same time. Some thought it was creepy, but others were happily overwhelmed with the idea of twins saying or doing the same thing. 

As princesses of the NWT, they were taught the utmost principles of what it means to be royalty and a part of their community tribe. 

Personality wise, they completed each other. Sure, they were similar in ways, but their opposite to each other made them whole. 

Yue was the perfect princess, whereas Lana was.... well wasn’t. 

One day, the girls were sitting in on another community tribe history lesson. Starting to quiz the twins on their knowledge, their teacher asked the twins, "What does our national emblem of our tribe look like?"

Yue rose her hand straight up in the air, ecstatic to know the answer.

"Yes, Princess Yue?", the teacher asked as she looked towards both of the girls from the classroom chalk board.

Yue put her hand down and softly answered the question, "Our national emblem is a blue circle with a waning moon and three wavy lines." 

The teacher beamed with pride at her young student's answer, "Yes, that is correct, Princess Yue, very good. And what does our emblem represent?"

Again, Yue shot her hand straight up knowing what the answer was for the second time. Without even turning around to see which of the girls were holding their hands up, the teacher said, "Yes, Yue?"

Yue full heartedly gave her answer by saying, "Our emblem represents the relationship between Tui and La, and how they exist in perfect harmony with each other." 

Turning around to look at the twins, the teacher remarked, "Yes, very excellent, Yue. You are right yet again!" Yue swelled with pride.

As the teacher prepared her next question, she side eyed her other student that had not said a peep throughout the whole class, which she knew was completely out of character for the otherwise talkative child. 

She turned back around to the chalk board and asked, "So who are Tui and La?". What neither Yue nor Lana expected was for their teacher to end the question with, "Princess Lana?" 

Being completely distracted reading a book on adventures in faraway places she stole from the library, Lana did not even hear her name being called.

As the teacher was still turned around, Yue gently elbowed her sister in her arm from her own desk.

Completely shocked, Lana exclaimed, "Ow, what!" Yue gave her a look and shook her head as if to scold her for misbehaving.

Looking towards Lana's desk, Yue saw the stolen book and then proceeded to nudge her head towards their teacher. 

Quickly, Lana put the scroll the girls and teacher were currently working on over her book and asked, "Uhh, what was the question?"

At this, their teacher turned around with a look of impatience for Lana's preoccupied behavior when she should have been listening. She quickly repeated the question nonetheless, "Who are Tui and La?" And with that, their teacher turned back around awaiting Lana's answer. 

Lana looked at Yue with wide eyes as if she wasn't told who Tui and La her whole life. Yue gaped at her sister like Lana had ten heads.

From that look alone, Lana responded with "Oh of course, Tui and La are the Moon and Ocean Spirits."

Lana sheepishly smiled at her sister, while Yue gave her a look to say pay attention.

"Mhm.. Very good. It would be even better though if you could pay attention to the lesson being given at the moment," the teacher scolded Lana.

Yue and Lana looked at each other, with Yue wearing a look of "I told you so."

Not that Yue would ever rat her out to their teacher for reading her favorite book. She would let Lana have her fun and was fully aware of Lana's despise towards most of her lessons, but Yue was often confused at why Lana wasn't taking being a princess more seriously like she was. 

Later on that night, Lana was feeling restless as she and Yue were trying to fall asleep. Both of the girls had issues sleeping at night, and were constantly being called 'night owl spirits' by their mom. 

Jumping out of her own bed, Lana practically threw herself onto Yue's bed. "Why don't we go overlook the city again, and this time you can actually join me at the top of the palace?" 

Yue looked at her sister as if she was crazy, but she was used to it as it was a nightly occurrence. "Well, don't you remember what happened last time?", Yue whispered softly to her sister to make sure no one heard them despite it being the middle of the night. "I don't want to get in trouble again." 

"Please, as if anyone is going to do anything about it. We won't be gone for too long this time, I promise.", Lana tried to reason with her twin. "Plus, this will give us an adventure to go on, you know how much I am dreading going to lessons again tomorrow. Please, I really can't sit in lessons all day without getting out and exploring at least once tonight!"

Yue glanced at the door and back to her sister.

She shook her head and gave Lana a small smile, and said "Oh okay, but I will just walk with you and be the look out. One of us has to make sure no one will be around to get us into trouble again." 

On their walk, Lana sneaked around each corner of the palace making sure the coast was clear. The way Lana looked so suspicious as if she were on a top secret mission made Yue softly giggle from behind her. 

Lana snapped her neck towards Yue and glared at her as if Yue committed treason against her. Yue winced from the look, but gave Lana a sheepish smile and quietly apologized. 

Not being able to stay mad at Yue for longer than a second, Lana smiled at her twin and rolled her eyes returning to sneak around ahead of Yue to make sure no one came up while they were distracted. 

Finally getting outside of the palace, Lana and Yue walked around their home to find their usual spot where Lana usually scaled the building. As she hoisted herself to the first frozen overhanging, she looked down at Yue and gave her a thumbs up and whispered, "I will be back in five minutes, ten minutes tops." 

Even though Yue could tell it was somewhat a lie, she gave her twin a thumbs up back and stood watch to make sure no one was coming around the palace. 

As Lana lifted herself up towards each overhanging off the palace walls, she felt more and more determined to reach the top. Suddenly, she realized she was already at the last edge. She yanked herself over, and caught her breath for a moment. 

After catching her breath, Lana finally turned around and was in awe of the beautiful night around her. She could see far out past the city at the endless sea with the moon shining through the ripples of the water. 

Stuck in her daydreams, Lana couldn't help but imagine what was beyond those waters and the types of lands she only dreamt of. 

At the bottom of the palace, Yue was patiently waiting for her twin and was admiring the midnight sky. 

After learning that their tribe depends on the moon, the ocean and their endless harmony earlier that day, she couldn't help but also contemplate how much the Moon and Ocean spirits were so important to her people. 

Distracted by her daydreaming, Yue forgot that she was meant to be on look out for anyone coming up on them. Overhearing voices a few streets away from where she was standing, she started to whisper yell "Lana, Lana!" 

Getting out of her own fantasy, Lana could hear Yue quietly yelling for her. Lana looked over the edge of the palace with a questioning look. The look on Yue's face let her know that someone was coming up and coming up on them quick. 

Quickly finding her usual foot placements on each of the palace wall edgings, Lana raced down the sides as if she was in a competition with herself. As Yue watched her, she imagined that Lana honestly was in competition with herself as if to see if she could get down even faster than the night before. 

When almost to the ground, Lana's foot slipped on one of the edges, and Yue let out a huge gasp of panic. 

Knowing she had a good handgrip, Lana stared down at her sister with a look of mischief, telling Yue she was pranking her into thinking she was going to fall. Yue only narrowed her eyes at her sister, and shook her head before letting out a little scoff and giggle at her sister's stupidity. 

Before Yue could say anything else, Lana gracefully jumped from her spot on the wall and landed right next to her. "I can't believe I actually got you again with that one", Lana said as she straightened out of her squatting landing.

Even with her kind nature, she couldn't help but slap her sister's shoulder and whisper yelled, "Well that would have gotten us into even bigger trouble than ever before, so would you please stop giving me a heart attack trying to pull that stunt for like... the thousandth time?" 

Lana was about to answer when the twins both heard people rounding a far away corner of the palace. Acting quickly, Lana grabbed Yue by her wrist, and raced back to the palace entrance with her sister in tow. 

Rapidly rechecking that no one else was in front of them yet knowing others were behind them, the twins dashed through the palace doors and hallways like they were thieves in the night. 

Making it to their bedroom, Yue and Lana heard a door open at the end of the hallway. Sharing a look of horror, Yue gently closed their door behind them. The twins sprinted to their beds and threw themselves under the covers while trying to stay as quiet as possible. 

Suddenly, their bedroom door opened a crack, and Soma peeked an eye in to make sure her girls were fast asleep. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Soma gave their sleeping figures a small smile, closed their door and went back to bed. 

Quietly giggling to each other from the crazy twist of events from their adventure, Lana tossed her blanket off her bed and jumped onto Yue's. 

Snickering at her sister's actions, Yue sat up to share of look of accomplishment with her sister. 

"And yet again, my plans for adventure worked out for the both of us!" Lana loudly muttered in their close vicinity. 

"Spirits, Lana, not so loud! Mom literally just came in here to see if you had ran off again. Though you are right, it was fun to go on an adventure with you." Yue looked at her sister with a huge smile. 

Lana returned the smile and responded with, "Well, what can I say Yue? I live for adventure, and you are my partner in crime, so I guess you are stuck with me." 

Yue quietly giggled at her sister's words, but remembered they needed to get some sleep before their early lessons. "Alright partner in crime, how about we finally go to sleep so that way, you won't be cranky for our lessons tomorrow morning?"

Finally getting out of Yue's bed with her hands on her hips, Lana gave her sister a fake laugh and said, "Me? Cranky? No, that is never me, I have no idea what you could be talking about."

Getting back into her own bed, Yue looked over and replied with, "Yeah, sure that is never you, what could I be thinking?" 

Both girls laughed at each other's sarcasm as they started to snuggle deeper under their own covers. "Yue, thank you for that adventure tonight. The sky and sea were just beyond beautiful." 

Yue smiled to herself and agreed with her sister, "Thank you too, Lana. Now let's get some sleep. Goodnight, I love you to the moon and back." 

Copying their usual nightly routine, Lana responded back, "Night Yue, I love you to the moon and back too." 

As both the twins started to fall asleep, they could not help but dream about what they had individually contemplated during their adventure.

~ The Next Day~

As all twins, and siblings for that matter, growing up together can be challenging. Fighting with one’s siblings is bound to happen. 

The next morning, the girls were on their way to another etiquette lesson, and Lana was a bit cranky from her lack of sleep just as Yue had expected.

Lana was sick and tired of attending these lessons. The girls were bickering about going, when Lana finally had enough whereas Yue understood the importance of following these types of traditions even at a young age. 

Despite her sweet disposition, Yue finally said to Lana, “Would you quit being so ignorant of your position within this tribe? It’s selfish, and princesses are meant to be selfless for their tribe, so how about you act like it?!”

Upset from Yue’s words, Lana took a step back with a look of shock on her face and responded with, “Well, Yue, maybe I didn’t sign up to be the princess?! Have you ever thought that there is more to this life than doing what you are told and being a princess?” 

All of a sudden, Lana turned her heel and ran out of the palace as fast as she could. Yue yelled to her, “Lana come back here!” 

At that moment, she was ready to run after Lana, and bring her back to apologize when she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to her mom. 

Soma looked down at Yue and said, “I know you and Lana didn’t mean what you said, but let’s let her simmer down to realize her place in the tribe, okay? Then you both will apologize and make up as always.” 

Yue looked down at her feet and whispered, “Okay mom, I just hope she comes back soon.” 

Soma sighed. “She will'', her mom responded, “she always does” with a sad smile towards her daughter. 

Walking with Yue’s hand in her own, her mom kiddingly said, “Okay, let’s get you to etiquette lessons before your teacher yells at both of us.” 

Yue let out a small laugh at her mom’s words, but couldn’t help looking out of the palace’s doors for Lana as she walked away.

Lana kept running. She felt water dripping onto her hands, when she suddenly noticed it was not even snowing out. She finally touched one of her cheeks and realized it was her tears she was feeling streaming down her face. 

She felt hopeless in being a princess, when she longed for adventure and traveling to all of the places she daydreamed about and read in her books. 

She kept running away. The people in the city were looking and talking about the princess as if she wasn’t running through them like a mad child. 

Accidently running into one of the tribe members, the women gasped in shock at getting run into. 

Looking down and realizing it was one of the princesses, the woman instantly tried to grab Lana to stabilize both herself and the princess, and asked, "Oh spirits, Princess Lana! Is everything okay?”

With all of the commotion Lana had caused and the woman offering to help her, Lana felt as if hundreds of eyes were stuck on her. Judging and in shock to see their princess so distraught. 

She slipped out of the woman's grasp and looked around at everyone in the area. She could see people whispering to each other and staring at her in plain sight. 

Feeling even more hopeless, Lana sprinted away even faster than before, she just wanted to be alone for a second to think through what just happened.

She finally found herself in an abandoned area of the city, with a water fountain in the center to calm herself even for a second. 

As she started to think through her thoughts, she felt angry and frustrated with everything. 

From trying to be the perfect princess like Yue to never being able to probably leave the city even for a day, she finally started to just scream to let out her agony. 

Sure, it was an extremely dramatic tantrum she realized, but she wasn’t allowed to have these kinds of moments a lot so she relished in her time of self pity. 

As she was screaming, she dropped to her knees. What she didn’t expect to happen was for the fountain to crack the tiniest amount. Lana looked up at the crack, and figured it must’ve just been poorly made. 

She continued her tantrum despite the rudely timed distraction, and slammed her fists against the ground. At that moment, the whole fountain burst.

What Lana also didn’t expect was for a rush of water to come colliding towards her from her place on the ground. 

In order to protect herself from getting completely soaked to the brim, she instinctively threw her hands up in front of her face and closed her eyes anticipating the impact. 

When she didn’t feel any water hitting her at all, she slowly opened one of her eyes to see what even happened. 

Lana let out a big gasp of surprise, when the overflow of fountain water was curved and sculptured around her. 

Lana looked around her surroundings, and realized that the water was completely frozen, leaving her in the center of a beautifully woven water shield shaped around herself.

She looked down at her hands, and the realization hit Lana like the fountain water should have. She glanced up and down from the water shield to her hands, and whispered “I can.... I can water bend?” 

Saying it out loud only made it even crazier. “I can water bend!” She exclaimed out of joy so loud, she was sure the whole city heard her. 

Leaving her little abandoned area, she looked back at her water shield creation one last time, and felt pure happiness pouring out from every fiber in her body. 

Out of true ecstasy, she found herself running as fast as she could back to the palace. The people that saw her run away crying not too long ago seemed to have whiplash from now seeing an ecstatic Lana racing even faster back to her home. 

As she climbed up the stairs of the palace, Lana threw open the doors, running straight to her lessons room where she found Yue, her dad and her mom listening in. Her teacher and family were utterly shocked to see Lana whipping open the door. 

The three of her family members were about to question her on what was going on when Lana shouted at the top of her lungs, “I, Princess Lana, can water bend!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated Chapter 1, thanks to the amazing and incredible @auriferouseyes! Shoutout for your wonderful advice and constructive criticism. If you haven't read her beautiful stories, go take a look at her work! :)
> 
> Lana actually means "afloat in calm waters" and "shining light", which both will more or less play out in future chapters. 
> 
> Thank you everyone who has left kudos, comments and read this story! I appreciate each and every single one of you.


	2. Healers and Warriors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lana shows her family that she is, in fact, a water bender. Out of all the happiness and praise at her new discovery, Lana can't seem to take in the idea of water bending traditions of her tribe. Despite this, Lana begins her very first lesson on water bending!

Yue, Arnook and Soma stared at Lana in the doorway with wide eyes. None of them knew what to say, what to think or what to do. 

Finally, her mom was brave enough to be the one to vocalize their confusion. “That is fantastic sweetie, but how do you know you can water bend?” 

Lana, panting from running and from her new revelation, took a second to catch her breath while doubled over with her hands on her knees. 

She finally caught her breath and looked up to her mom with determination in her eyes. She looked from her mom to her dad to her twin seeing their disbelief. 

After a second, Lana announced, “Well if none of you believe me, why don’t I just show you?” 

Eyeing the cup of water on her teacher’s desk, she skipped over to the side. Thinking of how she could possibly pick up the water, she slowly leaned her body from front to back with her arms out and hands curved downwards in front of her. 

Concentrating on the liquid, she moved her arms like a wave to have the water accompany her motions. 

As the water in the cup shook a little, Lana put a little more strength in the flow of her arms with more determination during her next attempt.

To everyone’s surprise, the water followed it’s command to move. 

Lana, shocked at first, quickly changed her expression to confidence. She took the water out of the cup when bringing the spout of water upward. Slowly, she brought her arms and hands closer to her small body. 

Once the water was directly in front of her, she pulled her hands closer together to form a ball of water. 

After successfully building the water ball, she glanced up to her family to see looks of shock at her new skills. 

Out of pure excitement, Lana jumped into the air and threw her hands above her head. She yelled yet again at the top of her lungs, “I did it, I did it!” Not realizing the water ball would be dropped and splashed all over the floor. 

Quickly, she looked around the room at her teacher and family. She sheepishly winced and shrugged one of her shoulders. “Sorry about that…” And gave everyone an embarrassed smile. 

Yue and Lana’s teacher swiftly took care of the water mess on the ground with a towel that was luckily awaiting for a spill in the room. After cleaning it up, their teacher looked towards the twin’s parents to see what their reaction was going to be. 

At the speed of light with a smile in her eyes, Lana looked towards her parents to know what they were thinking. 

Soma was still shocked, but she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, “My daughter is a water bender!”

On the other hand, Arnook was pensive thinking, but nonetheless had a look of pride on his face. 

See, both Soma and Arnook were non-benders, but Soma’s mother, Yagoda, was a healer, so Arnook was thinking that maybe Lana got her water bending from her grandmother.

But the way Lana manipulated the water in the air was nothing like Arnook has ever seen before for someone at such a young age with no training. He could see that Lana was a pure natural water bender, and Arnook could sense the raw strength in her bending abilities.

Lana looked to her sister to see her reaction. Yue was staring at Lana as if she had never seen water bending ever before. Yue jumped up from her seat and said, “This is absolutely wonderful, Lana!”

Lana looked at her sister and her parents with the biggest smile Yue had ever seen from her.

Soma added, “How amazing, Lana! I am so proud to have a water bender in our little family.”

Arnook finally gave voice to his opinions and quickly remarked, “From what I can see, you are going to be the best healer our tribe has ever seen.”

Lana was beaming with happiness at the praises her family were giving her. From what they had said, she couldn’t wait to water bend even more, but her father’s choice of words stuck in her mind leaving her a bit jumbled.

Soma looked from her husband to her daughter, and could see the look of pride yet confusion on Lana’s face. 

To distract Lana from her father’s words, Soma took Lana and Yue’s hands in her own, and said, “How about we end etiquette lessons a little early today and go see Nana? She is going to be over the moon about Lana’s discovery of her water bending skills.”

The girls were so giddy with joy as they both looked at each other, and soon were pulling their mother out of the lessons room. Arnook stayed back in the room, looking at their teacher as they both shared the same look of astonishment on their faces.

Dragging their mother with them, Yue and Lana raced through the city to finally come up to the healing hut where they knew they would find their Nana.

Thankfully, Yagoda wasn’t having a healing class and was cleaning up around the space. 

Yagoda glanced at the doorway, and was surprised to see her daughter and grandchildren out of breath. Yue and Lana rushed to their nana with big smiles, and embraced their grandmother. 

Lana looked up at her grandmother and screamed, “Nana! Nana! You won’t believe what I just found out, I can water bend!” 

Yagoda gasped with cheer, and looked back up to her daughter. “Is this true?” 

Soma nodded her head with a laugh, and said “Sure is, Lana just showed us for the first time right before they dragged me to see you.” 

Yagoda had tears in her eyes from happiness, and knelt down to Lana. “Oh my little water lily is a water bender. This is such exciting news!”

Right then, another figure came through the doorway looking for Soma. The man saw the little family, and instantly felt bad, but needed Soma’s assistance. He finally spoke up and said, “I am so sorry to interrupt, but Lady Soma, we desperately need your help with a few issues for the event tonight.” 

Soma responds to the man, “Of course, I will be right there.” She looks down at Yue and asks her, “Why don’t we go help a few of tribe members with some last minute decisions, while Nana and Lana spend some time together.” 

Yue looks to Lana, and they share an unspoken language between themselves. Lana nods to Yue, and Yue agrees with her mom and leaves, but not without one last look at her twin and grandmother. 

After they leave, Yagoda kneels next to Lana, and asks her “Why don’t you show me what you showed your parents and Yue?”

Just like before, Lana glances around the room for a cup of water. With no cups of water to use, she comes up with something else instead. She instinctively wants to try something new to show her Nana. 

Leaving Yadoga a bit confused, Lana runs outside as fast as she can, and gathers up a snowball. Racing back into the healing hut, she stands in front of her grandmother. 

With one hand holding the snowball, Lana focuses on the frozen ball and hovers her hand above it.

Without much thought, she lifts her hands directly above the snowball and arches her arm and slowly makes her arm wave through the air. 

Surprising both of them, Lana is able to change the form of the water from a solid to the liquid in mid-air. 

As she lifts the water through the air, her shock makes her fumble and she drops the water on the ground. 

Despite being somewhat disappointed with dropping the liquid, she looks up to her nana and is surprised to see such happiness on Yagoda’s face.

“Wow, Lana, you are such a natural at such a young age!”, Yagoda exclaimed. “I can sense you will be a strong healer.”

Lana smiles up at her Nana, but catches herself in confusion at the last word Yagoda says. 

Lana pensively says, “Thank you Nana, that coming from you means everything to me. But why does everyone keep saying I will be the one of the healers?” 

Nana looks to her granddaughter and says, “Well being a healer is important to our tribe. Our sisters are healers that keep us in good health, and our brothers are warriors that defend our city. Both work together to keep everyone in our tribe out of harm’s way. Don’t you remember learning this in one of your lessons?”

Lana sheepishly looks at her grandmother then at the floor with a look of mischief, “Yeah, of course I do, I always pay attention the whole time… obviously.”

Yagoda lets out a loud laugh with her head thrown back. “Oh my water lily, you can never lie to me. Especially when every time you lie, you can’t look me in the eye and you glance at the ground.”

Lana giggles at her nana’s words, but is still stuck on the healer statement. “Well grandma, what if I want to be a warrior too? Can’t I be a healer and a warrior?”

Lana thought it was truly an incredible gift to learn from her grandmother, and to also become a healer to keep the people in her tribe safe and healthy, but the thought of not using her water bending as a warrior gave her a bad taste in the back of her mouth.

Yagoda looked at her granddaughter with a sad smile and said, “Well, our traditions are our traditions for a reason. But don’t worry my little water bender, I can sense big things for your future, and the raw power in which you hold means you will become an even better healer than me.”

Lana swelled with pride at her grandmother’s words.

But the thing that stuck in her mind was what was the reason ‘traditions are traditions’? She was determined to find out one way or another.

Seeing the bewildered look on Lana’s face, Yagoda wanted to change the subject to get started right away on honing Lana’s healing abilities. “Why don’t we start with your very first lesson on healing using your water bending?”

Despite being confused, the change of subject erased Lana’s next question on the traditional reasoning. 

She smiled up at her Nana and said, “Of course, I would be honored if you taught me everything you know.”

Her grandmother swelled with pride at her granddaughter’s words. 

She felt pure happiness at the thought of teaching her own granddaughter the very skill she taught all the water bending women of their tribe. 

With a look of excitement shared by Lana, she got up and announced, “Perfect, then let us begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I researched the Inuit word for grandmother, and found out it is Ananaksaq, and since the Water Tribes are influenced by Inuit cultures, I decided to have Yagoda’s grandmother nickname be Nana. Please let me know if I am wrong as I am more than happy and willing to fix this author’s note!


	3. Twin Telepathy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yue and Lana have a heart to heart conversation about Lana's new water bending. They may, or may not even get in trouble hours after this new discovery. No matter what, twins will be twins!

Later on that day after her first lesson with Yagoda, Lana went searching for Yue in the palace. After endless searching, she finally found Yue in their shared room. 

Even though there were more than enough rooms in the palace, Lana and Yue agreed to share a bedroom, not wanting to be apart for too long. 

It also ended up getting them into a bit of trouble whenever they were giggling or playing together too loudly in the middle of the night. 

The girls were always up to something, but no one, not even their parents, could force them to have their own rooms as if they were an inseparable force to be reckoned with. 

When Lana was looking at Yue sitting on her bed reading a book, she could sense that something was off. Yue almost never was frowning or upset, despite the small amount of times they bickered. 

Instantly, Lana walked into their room and sat on Yue’s bed. She looked at Yue with a small frown and asked, “Yue, what is the matter?”

Yue looked up from her book to her twin. She gave Lana a sad smile and replied, “how can you tell that something is wrong?”

Lana gave her a small giggle trying to make her feel better. “I can always tell when something is wrong, I call it twin telepathy.”

As she reached over to close Yue’s book, Lana couldn’t help but ask, “Did something happen after you left with mom?” 

Yue looked from her sister down to her closed book as tears started to form in her eyes. 

After such an amazing discovery that Lana could waterbend, Yue couldn’t help but be a little envious of her twin’s new skills even if she was excited and happy to see her sister so happy.

“No, nothing happened with mom. It is just that… after I left, mom was so excited for you that she was telling some of the tribe members that you can waterbend, while I just stood there. I am so happy and proud of you and for you, but it just made me a bit jealous that even though we are twins, I can’t waterbend yet you can.” Yue finished with swiping tears away from her eyes.

Because of how crazy everything turned out to be today, Lana didn’t even consider Yue’s feelings towards her new skills. 

She could tell that Yue was happy, but it didn’t even cross her mind that this could make her feel bad at the same time. 

After a moment of contemplation, Lana grabbed Yue’s hand that was resting in her lap and held them with both of her hands. 

After making Yue look her in her eyes, Lana gave her a smile and said, “What is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. We’re twins, silly. We share everything, always and forever. I know everything that has happened is a bit weird and overwhelming, but it is weird for me too. I wish I could give you a part of my new abilities, but maybe we can use this to our advantage! Start pranking people together with water bending, and maybe we will get caught less.”

Yue laughed at Lana, “Or you mean get caught more. There will be puddles of water being brought right back to us culprits. And when you say ‘we will get caught less’, you mean you will get caught less, you are the mastermind behind mostly all the pranks.” 

Lana started giggling with Yue, “You are probably right, but it’s just because you’re too kind hearted to pull pranks and you get stuck in the middle because of me.” 

Lana swiped the last tear resting on Yue’s cheek and continued to say, “Look, no matter what, I want you to know I will never use water bending against you. And we can play water bend without water if it makes you feel any better!” 

Yue smiled at her twin and said, “Honestly, just talking about it with you makes me feel better. Not sure how we could even do that, but you trying to make me less sad always makes me feel happier.”

Lana gave Yue another sad smile and tried to think of something else that would cheer her up. Glancing at the vase on Yue’s dresser, Lana walked over and concentrates. 

Attempting to pick up the water from the vase, Lana raised her hands in the air towards the glass and slowly focused on the water. 

Slowly bringing her hands up more than before, the girls could see the water rise out of the glass and follow Lana’s movements almost instinctively. 

Yue was in shock of Lana’s skill even though she just started learning to heal earlier that day.

Getting a better grasp on the now airborne water stream floating above her hands, Lana started to twirl in their room to make the water follow her motions.

Yue was laughing at Lana’s movements, but was in awe of the way the water follows her around. It almost looked like the water was Lana’s partner in a silly dance. 

Seeing Yue beaming with laughter, Lana got a better solid stance on her feet, and lifted her arms to make the water circle around Yue on her bed. 

The stream twirled around her figure following Lana’s hands and stopped at the top of Yue. The water stream formed a ball over Yue's head.

Yue looked up and saw the water bubble a few inches above. Yue quickly glanced at Lana, and she shared a look of mischief with her twin. Lana knew what she’s going to do next.

Right before Lana could do anything with the water bubble, she yelled, “Yue, no!” Yue went ahead and popped the bubble and the water fell on top of her.

The twins looked at each other with expressions of pure shock.

After a second, the girls started cackling with laughter at how they must look in their room right now. 

Even though Yue was soaking wet, she couldn’t help the way Lana was completely shocked and exacerbated with laughter at Yue’s actions.

Despite being upset earlier, Yue felt better than before with being envious of not being a water bender, and was genuinely happy to see how she was able to make Lana laugh so much.

After a few moments, Yue said, “Okay now, can you either get me a towel to dry off me and my bed, or use some waterbending? If someone storms in here, we’re going to be in big trouble.”

Lana thought it over for a second, she never even thought of taking the liquid out of fabric before. 

She walked over from her place in their room, and stands close to Yue. Focusing on the water in the fabric and Yue’s hair and clothing, Lana slowly lifted her hands up from her hips. 

Rapidly, the water on Yue and her bed started to float above in the air again.

Quicker this time, Lana formed the water in the air into a ball. Looking at each other smiling, their moment of surprise at Lana’s new ability is shortly over. 

The twins heard footsteps coming from down the hallway, getting closer and closer. 

Yue and Lana shot their eyes from the door to each other with looks of panic.

Yue quickly whisper yelled, “Put it back, put it back! Quick, Lana!”

Trying to be as quick as possible, Lana ran with the water ball in front of her arms. Getting closer and closer to Yue’s dresser, Lana swayed her arms, forming the water bubble into a liquid stream and rapidly placed the water back into the vase.

As they heard the footsteps get even closer to their bedroom door, Lana ran across the room to Yue’s bed and sat next to her just in time for the door to open.

Arnook stepped inside and glanced around the room to see his daughters sitting on Yue’s bed with mischief smiles on their faces. Not that this was a very different thing to come upon when Arnook was looking for his twins, but this time was a little different than the rest.

Arnook held a half-lipped smile and slowly said to the girls, “what’s going on in here this time?” 

The girls looked at their father and each other, and at the same time said, “Nothing!”

Arnook shook his head and dismissed further questions knowing that the girls were up to something just before he came through the door. “Well alright, my two little trouble makers, we need to prepare for the event tonight, so please go see your mother and your handmaidens to get dressed and ready.” 

Right away, the girls shot up from Yue’s bed and ran past their father with giggles and responded with “of course, right away dad!”

Arnook shook his head from his twins’ reactions and was about to leave when he saw a bit of water dripping off of the flowers on Yue’s dresser.

He glanced at the door and back to the flowers, knowing full well what was just going on before arriving. 

Arnook knew that this would have to be a discussion for another time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fun fact: I am actually an identical twin, so many of these situations of where one twin is feeling bad and the other is trying so hard to make the other feel better happens all time. Writing Yue and Lana as twins is such an amazing experience.


	4. The Winter Solstice Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the Winter Solstice Celebration, Chief Arnook shares new and exciting announcements to the rest of the tribe. Before the feast can begin, Lana and Yue participate in a ceremonial dance with some of the other women tribe members. Yet again, Lana is reminded of her part to play in her tribe as a healer, but this time, she hears it directly from a Counsel Tribe member.

As the girls got ready for the event, Lana looked over to see Yue nervously biting her nails while she was getting her hair fixed up.

Lana knew right away what Yue was worried about. Trying to make her stop, Lana said “Would you quit doing that? Everything is going to be fine, we have practiced the dance like a million times.”

Yue sheepishly tried looking over at her twin, but one of her handmaidens gently took Yue’s chin to keep her head straight as her other handmaiden was adding the final pieces to her traditional up do.

“I know, I know.” Yue whispered out of nerves, “I just don’t want to mess up in front of everyone, I just want to it all to be perfect.”

Knowing she needed to help quell Yue’s nerves, Lana tried to be more empathetic towards her by stating, “Yue, it’s going to be great. Plus there will be ten other women on the stage, and we can quickly practice before we leave if that is going to make you feel better.”

Even though Lana absolutely dreaded having to go to most of her lessons, the one class she loved full-heartedly was her dance lessons. As she was awaiting Yue’s response, she became distracted with thinking over how peaceful and calm she was when dancing. 

The movements of the traditional dances reminded her of the ocean and the waves crashing onto the shore. 

Making her think of the sea as forever dauntless and daring beyond the horizon. 

Getting Lana out of her thoughts of her love for dancing, Yue finally let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, that would be helpful, Lana.”

It was funny, Lana contemplated how being a twin was a push and pull between the two of them, and couldn’t help but giggle at the fact that as long as one of them was calm in any given situation, the other would be able to freak out a bit more. Even if Lana was usually the calm one in stressful events, she knew that when arguments got heated, she could depend on Yue and her patience to alleviate tensions.

Yue hearing her twin giggling beside her, she side-eyed Lana and asked, “Are you mocking me for being nervous?”

“Spirits no, Yue!” Lana was trying to think of what she could tell her without reminding Yue that she was nervous about the dance. She continued, “I was just thinking of dad’s face when we were just sitting on your bed, I don’t think he had a clue of what was going on.”

Yue shushed Lana as she kindly smiled at her handmaidens through the mirror. 

Her handmaidens gave Yue knowing smiles and small giggles telling her that they always know the twins, specifically Lana, are usually up to no good.

Lana rolled her eyes at Yue’s shushing. What did she really care if people knew they liked to play and fool around, isn’t that what seven year olds are supposed to do?

Getting a bit more and more impatient at having to sit still, Lana’s handmaiden put in the final traditional beads into her hair and took a step back, telling Lana she was finished.

Lana jumped up onto her chair and exclaimed, “Ta da! Princess Lana at your service!”

All of the handmaidens let out loud laughs at Lana’s mannerisms, while Yue just stifled a laugh with her hand over her mouth.

Just then, Soma came through the doorway and was about to ask if the girls were ready. “How are we doing.... Lana, what in the avatar cycles are you doing? Get off of that chair.”

Walking over to guide her young daughter down to the ground, even Soma couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Lana’s handmaidens looking up at her child being as silly as ever.

“To answer your first question, Mom, I am officially ready. Yue is just about done, and we just need to practice our dance one last time before we walk in with you”, Lana finished giving her mom a play by play.

Soma walked over to Yue’s chair, placed her hand on her shoulder and looked at her two daughters through the mirror. “Well, don’t you two look absolutely stunning?”

Yue beamed with a smile in her seat looking at her mom, while Lana gave her a smaller smile and started scratching her head through her stiff updo.

“Okay, well once Yue is officially done, and you quickly practice your dance one more time, I will be waiting for you right outside”, Soma said as she left to go finish up getting ready herself.

The girls nodded in agreement and Soma left the room. Lana looked at Yue through the mirror again and said, “You really do look beautiful.”

Knowing that hyping up Yue’s confidence was going to make Yue even more self-assured about the dance, Lana added, “Look, even your black strip is perfectly aligned with your updo.”

As the final beads were added to her hair, Yue stood up and looked at Lana. “Thank you, Lana. So don’t you.”

Lana clapped her hands together and said, “Alright, let’s give this dance one more run through.”

“Okay, let's do it. But we gotta hurry, we don’t want to be late like you usually are”, she finished with a soft giggle.

Faking being taken back by her twin's words, Lana scoffed and replied, “Well, like I always say, a Princess is never late, everyone else is just simply early.”

The twins cackled at Lana’s silliness, while their handmaidens rolled their eyes but couldn’t stop themselves from adding to the laughter.

Sitting at the head table of the party, the frozen ballroom was set up with many flowing water fountains, traditional tribal decorations, and lavious glowing lanterns. As Lana glanced around the room, she was in complete awe of how the room looked to celebrate the Winter Solstice. 

Finally, her father stood up at the top table overlooking the crowd of people and started his speech. 

“My brothers and sisters, tonight we celebrate our winter solstice with a winter feast to celebrate many things. To honor our new year ahead, we ask Tui and La to protect our tribe, bring good fortune to our hunters, and mark the start of the new sun.” Arnook paused to let his people cheer.

Arnook continued,”Tonight, we also celebrate many new notions. Firstly, someone in our tribe has discovered her new waterbending abilities today.” 

Turning to move his arm in Lana’s direction, he exclaimed, “Princess Lana!” 

The people sitting within the frozen ballroom roared with happiness for their princess. Lana couldn’t help but smile and look around the ballroom to her people. 

Lana was filled with pride, and finally looked at Yue, who was sharing this excitement despite her past envious thoughts and their conversation earlier that day. 

Arnook swelled with joy seeing his daughters look so ecstatic.

Turning back to look towards his people, Anrook continued his speech. “Now, many of you do not know this, but we also are celebrating a new arrangement between the Fire Nation. To better protect our tribe and sister tribe in the South, we are arranging an agreement between the Fire Lord and our nation. The delegates of the Fire Nation will be arriving on our shores early next week.” 

Out of confusion and bewilderment, the people in the ballroom gaped at their Chief with looks of concern. 

Sensing this, Arnook went on to say, “Now I know many of you have worries over what is to come of this arrangement. But the Council and I have decided this agreement must happen with the new Fire Lord that was just anointed three months ago, in order to preserve the Water Nation and to defend our people.”

Yue and Lana shared a look of disbelief. 

The twins were sure that they learned about previous atrocities the Fire Nation committed from the orders of past Fire Lords, but the twins could only acknowledge that their father was only trying to shield their tribe from future fighting, sharing this thought process with the rest of the people in the ballroom. 

Lana thought it over some more, and figured that maybe the new Fire Lord was much more peaceful than the past few. Yue seemed to understand Lana’s thoughts as she nodded at Lana and turned back to look at their father. 

Despite the rather displeasing announcement, Arnook looked around the room and decided to change the subject to let the issue simmer down amongst his people. 

Chief Arnook remarked, “May the new year bring us good luck, happiness, and excellent health to our tribe!” 

The tribe members clapped yet again, although much quieter this time than before when celebrating one of their Princess’s new waterbending abilities. 

After a few moments, Arnook finished his speech by saying, “And now, let us commence these joyous announcements with the women water tribe dance ceremony!” 

Getting up from their seats, Lana took Yue’s hand in her own and gave her a squeeze, reassuring her that everything will be fine. 

Moving towards the stage, the girls joined the rest of the dancers, with themselves in front and center. The women took their inital stance.

Knowing that she had spent countless hours of preparation for this, Lana committed the dance to muscle memory and felt more than confident to start the ceremonial dance. 

As the drums started to beat, Lana took a deep breath and started the dance a bit bent over and swaying her arms similar to a wave with the rest of the dancers. 

As she continued through the right dance movements at the right time, Lana felt herself ease up as she closed her eyes and let the music guide her dance with the exact correct motions. 

Lana started to glide across the stage, crossing paths with Yue as they both swayed their arms in circular motions. Lana then bent her knees and spun around on the balls of her feet a few times while rising her arms from her hips to above her head.

Following her muscle memory, she started to hear gasps from the crowd, but figured it was just from the beautiful dance that was being done by all of the women.

Lana then dropped back to her feet in horse stance with one of her arms above her head and the other closer to her bent knee. 

Thinking the other dancers were on the same motion without opening her eyes, she kept up with the swaying of her arms to allow them to wave as if they were the ocean themselves. 

Lana could feel her body swaying and twirling through the air. She felt as light as a feather as she continued to thrive in her natural element. 

She continued the more agile jumps and cartwheels instructed of her and Yue as they were coming up on their final dance move. 

With one last jump and spin in the air, she planted her feet and lifted her arms to form a semi-circle mirroring Yue opposite to her on the stage.

Knowing the dance was over, Lana finally opened her eyes, and looked at Yue directly across from their final pose. 

Yue and Lana smiled at each other, but were utterly shocked when seeing what was in the middle of the space between their arms circling each other. 

They shared a huge gasp at the same time, looking between each other to see a ball of water floating. 

Taking a step back and placing one of her hands over her mouth in shock, Lana dropped the ball of water to the ground. 

Glancing around at the other dancers, Lana had realized the looks of complete bewilderment and that the other dancers were not even in their final places of the dance where they were meant to be. 

What Lana, nor Yue for that matter, didn’t realize was that all of the woman had stopped mid-dance because Lana was using her waterbending unconsciously throughout the whole dance without even realizing it.

Lana looked around the crowd of people in the ballroom, and saw them staring at her in awe at the way she moved the water around while dancing with her eyes closed.

Suddenly, everyone in the room started to roar and cheer for Lana’s performance… well, almost everyone.

Despite her shock of what she had just done, she sheepishly smiled to the crowd of people cheering. 

Looking around the room, she finally found the head table with her mother and father sitting, and some of the tribal council members standing behind them. 

While Soma wore a smile with her hands held in front of her chin, her father was looking at Lana with a slight disappointed look on his face. 

Many of the council members standing behind her parents didn’t even try to hide their feelings of dissatisfaction at Lana’s waterbending use. 

Slightly cowering from the looks from her father and council members, Lana finally looked to Yue. 

Yue gave her a nervous smile and grabbed Lana’s hand and squeezed it to reassure her that what just occurred actually happened, and everything was going to be okay as the cheering started to die down. 

Even if Yue was trying to convince herself out of sympathy for Lana. 

As the dancers dispersed to their rightful tables, Lana felt slightly embarrassed that she didn’t even know that she was waterbending throughout the whole dance as she and Yue walked back to their seats.

Despite this, she also couldn’t help but wonder how amazing it must’ve looked. Lana was just overwhelmed and perplexed with how to feel as she and Yue sat back down at the head table.

The rest of the evening went much more smoother as Arnook completely ignored what had happened and commenced the feast so that everyone could enjoy the extravagant foods prepared.

At least, Lana thought it was going smoothly until she felt a presence behind her. 

Deciding to turn around, Lana glanced to see Master Pakku, the waterbending teacher for all of the warriors in their tribe, standing behind her. 

Suddenly, Master Pakku decided to start the conversation by saying, “That was quite the performance you pulled during the dance ceremony.” 

Lana stood up from her chair and before she could even explain that she didn’t even mean to do what she did on the stage, Master Pakku held his hand up as if to dismiss whatever Lana was going to say. 

Pakku continued, “Despite your… disruptions of the dance, I can see that you have strong waterbending skills at such a young age. You will be a very powerful healer for our tribe, congratulations.” 

Disturbed by Master Pakku’s condescending tone, Lana’s face clearly showed that she was offended by his words. 

She was sick and tired of hearing the same thing over and over again about her new abilities. 

Trying to control her face more, she looked up at Master Pakku and tried to be cordial as it was expected of the princess to show respect to her elders.

She may or may not even had thought of testing the traditional limits as the waterbending warrior teacher was talking with her now. 

Lana forced a smile and said, “Well, thank you Master Pakku. You see, I actually didn’t even mean to waterbend during the dance and it was all an accident. But as you just said, you can sense that I am strong bender. So I was thinking that maybe I could join your lessons and learn from you?”

Surprised by Lana’s attempt to join his classes, Master Pakku scoffed. “With all due respect, Princess Lana, but as a princess of our tribe, you know that it is not your place to be in my class. I am sure your grandmother is already planning on you joining her lessons and as tradition, you will be a healer with the other women waterbenders of our tribe. I am sure you will be a great healer.” 

Utterly stunned from Pakku’s words, Lana’s jaw dropped, and anger and resentment quickly took its place in Lana’s determination to learn from him, while Master Pakku started to walk away. 

As Master Pakku and Lana spoke right behind her, Yue was eavesdropping on their conversation. 

After hearing Pakku’s disapproval towards Lana’s suggestion, Yue quickly glanced behind her at Lana, toward her father sitting at the table. 

Yue could see her father furiously shaking his head with disappointment towards Lana’s attempt while he also listened in on their conversation. 

Just as Lana was about to lash out and absolutely scream at Master Pakku, Yue jumped out of her chair and hooked Lana’s arm with her own. 

Feeling Yue’s presence directly beside her while refraining her from causing an atrocious scene, Yue whispered in Lana’s ear, “That’s enough, Lana.”

Pulling Lana to say goodbye to her parents so that they could be dismissed, Yue looked at her father and mother, and said “Well, I think Lana and I are done for the evening. Thank you for another joyous Winter Solstice, mom and dad.”

Without even looking up to either of her parents, Lana nodded but couldn’t erase the complete disappointment at her and Pakku’s conversation.

Not even giving their parents a moment to respond, Yue knew she had to drag Lana out of there as fast as possible. 

As Yue was practically yanking Lana out of the ballroom while trying to look as natural as possible, she saw Lana glance from the ground to Yue’s eyes. 

Looking directly at her, Yue’s face dropped at the sight of Lana’s eyes filling with tears. 

Now more than ever, Yue knew she had to race back to their bedroom with Lana in tow. 

Finally arriving at their bedroom, Yue opened the door and Lana ripped her arm out of Yue’s. She sprinted to her bed, and finally felt safe enough to start crying her eyes out.

Out of pure embarrassment, rage and agony, Lana felt like her eyes were going to pour out of her head at how hard she was crying.

Seeing Lana so upset, Yue was on the brink of crying herself. 

Despite this, Yue knew she had to keep it together and stay strong for the both of them.

Walking over to Lana’s bed, she slowly took a seat above her head and started to play with Lana’s hair as Lana cried.

Trying to think of ways to calm Lana down, Yue started to hum a song their mother always sings to them at bedtime, letting Lana continue to cry.

After minutes and minutes passed, Lana finally started to calm down and stop crying. 

Noticing Lana’s now calmer state, Yue said to Lana, “I know you are feeling completely disappointed, but I am here for you. I will always be by your side.” 

Lana gulped trying to hold back the leftover tears still in her eyes. 

After not talking for so long, all Lana could do was whisper, “I just feel so hopeless, Yue. I want to learn waterbending as a healer and as a warrior. Why can’t I just do both?” Finally looking up at Yue with a sad look on her face. 

Yue felt tears coming to her eyes at her sister's despair. She had never seen Lana look this way ever, yet Yue felt pure determination at wanting to make her feel better.

Getting up from her spot on top of Lana’s bed, she quickly moved to the other side of the bed. 

Crawling in to cuddle Lana, Yue thought over what they could do to fix this problem. Suddenly, an idea popped into Yue’s mind. 

“Well, we are partners in crime, aren’t we?” Yue looked at her sister with a feeling of mischief. “Just like we sneak around for our adventures at night, why don’t we sneak around to watch the waterbending warrior lessons and we can find you some waterbending scrolls to read during our lessons?!”

Completely shocked from Yue’s mastermind thinking strategies, Lana started to laugh. 

Surprised from Lana’s laughter, Yue looked at her sister with confusion. 

“Yue…. you are a genius!” Lana exclaimed. “Why in the spirits didn’t I think of that?”

Joining Lana in her giggles, Yue continued to play with Lana’s hair and said, “Well, you can’t always be the one to come up with the best ideas.”

Feeling incredible from Yue’s plans, Lana started to slowly forget all of the pain and embarrassment she felt during the Winter Solstice ceremony. 

As Lana started to slowly fall asleep from her emotional and physical exhaustion, Lana gave her sister a smile with her eyes closed. 

Lana whispered, “What would I do without you?”

As Yue looked at her sister, she started to close her eyes. With a smile on her face, Yue replied, “Probably get into way more trouble.” 

At that, the twins giggled at each other as they both fell asleep for the night, cuddling in Lana’s bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to my research on Inuit traditions, their traditional New Year celebration is actually called Quviasukvik, and it is usually a winter feast celebrated to bring good luck for the upcoming hunting season and to mark the new sun. I decided to name the event Winter Solstice to stick with ATLA names, but I wanted to tie in and respect Inuit traditions as the Water Tribes are heavily influenced by their culture. 
> 
> And yes, if you thought that was a quote from the Princess Diaries, you be be correct :)
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this chapter and the upcoming change of events with the Treaty! Also please lmk if I am wrong in my research, I am more than happy to change anything and learn more about the Inuit culture.


	5. The Day before the Fire Nation Arrives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the Fire Nation arrives the next day, Chief Arnook summons Lana to have a discussion of what happened during the ceremonial dance and the Winter Solstice feast.

Over the past week, Lana had been avoiding her father like he was the plague. She could tell their inevitable conversation about what happened wasn’t going to go the way she wanted it to go. 

Keeping herself busy with learning how to heal more from her Nana, helping her mom and Yue with the Fire Nation preparations, and secretly trying out small new water bending moves the twins thought of before going to bed, she found herself and Yue yet again in their bedroom waiting for the impending discussion to happen. 

As if she summoned the chat with her father herself, Soma knocked on her door and left herself in. 

Soma looked at her daughters with a sad grin, seeing the look of anticipation on Lana’s face. “Lana, your father wants you to go to his office and talk for a little bit, okay?” 

Nodding her head and getting off her bed, she glanced at Yue before slowly making her way over to her mom and felt like her feet were as heavy as bricks. 

Lana wasn’t looking forward to this at all. If Soma didn’t feel awful seeing Lana like this, she probably would’ve laughed at the way Lana looked like a polar bear dog with her tail between her legs. 

Walking hand in hand with her mom down the massive palace hallway, Lana couldn’t help but think of how her father probably wanted to have the conversation before the Fire Nation arrived tomorrow. It was just bound to happen. 

Arriving at her father’s office door, Lana gazed up at her mom and asked, “Are you coming in with me?” 

Looking at her daughter, Soma understood Lana’s implications in her question. Lana was begging for her to join her in the room. Soma felt guilty that she couldn’t be there for this, but she was already busy with last minute preparations. 

Soma spoke to Lana in a reassuring tone, “I’m sorry Lana, but I can’t. I have to go grab Yue from your room, and get back to the ballroom to get ready for our guests tomorrow. But I promise everything is going to be okay, your father just wants to talk.” 

And with that, Lana watched her mother leave. Lana turned around and stared at the door. 

She took a deep breath and held her chin high as she reminded herself what happened is in the past, and there’s nothing for her to do but keep moving forward. 

As she knocked on the door, Lana could hear her father on the other side calling her in. 

Lana opened the door to see her father working at his desk. She slowly made her way to the chair next to him.

Seeing his daughter walk in so quietly and take a seat, Arnook started to feel guilty at needing to have this conversation with her. But in the end, he knew it had to be done. 

“Listen, Lana.”, He started the conversation. “I want you to know that I am not mad at you for last week’s events. I talked it over with your mom, and we both understand you didn’t mean to do it on purpose. I was just disappointed as it is tradition that women only waterbend for healing, but then you had to go and ask Master Pakku to start taking his warrior lessons.” 

Trying to be patient with her father, Lana was desperate to find the reasoning behind this tradition. 

“Why is that our tradition though?” Lana questioned her father. ”Just think of how many warriors we would have if our tribe would include women in those lessons in case danger were ever to arise and”

Before Lana could finish her thought, Arnook shot up from his desk and slammed his fists on the desk, “Lana, enough!”

Not expecting such outrage, Lana winced but tried to stay strong and not cower to show that women can be just as strong as men. 

Attempting to take a second to take a deep breath, Arnook sat back down and ran one of his hands over his face. 

He finally opened his eyes and looked at his daughter. Even for such a young child, Arnook briefly thought about her determination in her opinions, and stubbornness in what she thinks is right has always been so strong. Arnook found it difficult staying mad at her, when he saw so much of his younger self in her nature. 

Attempting to ease the tension that could be cut with a knife in the room, Arnook started to apologize, “I’m sorry for my impatience, Lana, I know you want to learn to use waterbending to become a warrior, but”, Arnook took a second to hold his chin in thought. “Why is it that you want to learn to fight so badly? We have guards to protect you, Yue, your mother and the rest of the women of this tribe.” 

Lana sat up straighter in her chair as if to challenge her father into thinking she needs protection despite being a little girl. 

She stared at her father from across the desk, and took a second to steady her shaky breath from being a bit nerved up from her father’s previous disapproving yell.

Finally finding the courage, Lana confidently stated, ”I won’t always be your little girl, dad, and I won’t always have guards with me to protect me from danger. Not only do I want to learn to protect myself, but I believe it is my right to also protect our tribe from any danger. The sooner you understand that, the sooner I can learn to do it.” 

Well, Arnook wasn’t expecting that kind of answer. He sits back in his chair, dropping his arms to his sides. 

“You’re wrong about that, my little trouble maker.” Arnook said while giving Lana a sad grin. “You will always be my little girl, even when you become an elder of this tribe. Either way, we cannot change our traditions.”

Arnook continued to explain, “I know you think you’re reasoning is right that you need to defend our people using waterbending, but I am signing this treaty with the Fire Nation in order to prevent future danger from harming us. Not only this, but you have the ability to learn from Nana to become a healer and defend our tribe that way. Do you understand what I am saying?”

At her father’s words, Lana looked down at her lap. She just couldn’t comprehend why her father felt this way, just like Arnook would never get her reasoning to learn how to fight. 

Thinking this through, she didn't look up at him and slowly nodded her head. Even if she did not actually agree with what he said. She knew that at this point, continuing the conversation would just lead them into circles. 

Knowing his little girl wouldn’t give up that easily, Arnook decided that this was enough conversation to maybe start to get through to Lana. Even if he was sure she would try again anyways. 

Trying to end their conversation on a good note, Arnook got up from his chair, walked over and kneeled next to Lana’s. 

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, and I hate that you feel like you need to defend our people.” Arnook took a piece of her fallen braid that was hanging down part of her face, put it behind her ear then placed his hand on her shoulder. 

At this, Lana glanced from her lap to her father with a downcast smile. He returned the smile and felt her shoulders relax from the tension she was holding. 

“Even though I was a bit disappointed with what happened at the ceremony, I have to admit that how you danced with the water without even knowing was truly a sight to see”, Arnook said trying to make his daughter smile. 

Hearing her father compliment her despite their conversation was mostly her getting reprimanded, Lana’s face lit up with a huge grin that spread from ear to ear. She asked her father in an amazed voice, “You really thought so?”

“Yes, my little trouble maker.”, Arnook said as he stood up. “But I want you to be on your best behavior tomorrow when the Fire Nation delegates arrive. I want to make a good impression on them to show how strong of a tribe we are. Do you think you can do that for me?” 

“Of course, I’m always on my best behavior”, Lana sarcastically said while smirking. Seeing her father’s now stern face glaring down at her, she muttered, “Okay, okay, I will be on my best behavior.”

“Thank you, Lana.” Arnook continued, “Why don’t you go join your mother and Yue in preparing for tomorrow then, while I finish up some work?” 

Lana nodded her head, and skipped out of Arnook’s office.

As he watched his little girl skip down the hallway, Arnook took a second to think about how Lana’s will power was like the ocean during a storm. 

Fearless and wild like a hurricane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: The Fire Nation delegates arrive at the Northern Water Tribe.
> 
> In case you missed it in Chapter 4, Ozai was anointed as Fire Lord three months ago in this story timeline (for now).


	6. Fire Meets Gasoline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Fire Nation delegates make their way towards the Northern Water Tribe gates, Princess Lana is missing and Princess Yue lies to protect her twin. At last, the Fire Nation ship finally arrives to commence the peace treaty with Chief Arnook and the Water Nation.

Awaiting the arrival of the Fire Nation, the Water Tribe guards posted on the highest walls of the city were watching for the Fire Nation ship to come into view through the horizon while the rest of the tribe was preparing for their guests.

Dressed in their finest furs, the royal family stood at the top of the palace stairs waiting for the signals that their visitors arrived at their shores. 

Well, the whole royal family, except for Lana. 

All of a sudden, one of the guards looked out through a telescope and saw a ship peering through the skyline. Quickly turning around to alert the tribe, the guard sounded the horns to let the whole city know the Fire Nation ship was getting closer and closer to their gates.

Chief Arnook was impatiently tapping his foot with his fists on his hips, searching for his daughter through the crowds of people scurrying to the outskirts of the frozen sidewalks surrounding the palace in order to get a better look at the Fire Nation arrival.

With Soma standing next to him and Yue on his other side, Soma could sense his tension. She quickly thought about how she could probably sense it from a mile away even if she wasn’t right next to him. 

Trying to ease the situation, Soma grabbed his hand from his hip, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Love, don’t worry, Lana knows how important this is. She was just with us getting ready. I promise she will be here any second”, Soma whispered to her husband.

Meanwhile, Yue was standing next to her father nervously biting her fingernails while praying to the spirits that Lana would get to her spot in time. Yue knew exactly where her twin was, but could not stop herself from feeling extremely anxious that Lana wouldn’t make it back by the time their guests showed up. 

Before Yue and Lana left to stand with their parents and be at their rightful places outside the palace, Lana cunningly devised a plan. 

After getting ready with their mom, Yue was pulled into their bedroom right before needing to leave for the palace steps. Lana informed Yue of her plan by whispering, “Okay, while you, mom, dad, and the rest of the tribe are outside of the palace, I am going to run to the palace library archive and find a martial waterbending scroll to take so that I can start my own warrior training.”

Yue’s eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of her head. 

Yue could feel herself becoming furious. Shaking her head frantically at her sister, she was utterly perplexed that today of all days, Lana was going to use everyone’s distraction as a ploy to get her hands on a waterbending scroll. 

“Oh my…. Lana, this really isn’t a good idea! How are you going to hide it?!” Yue practically yelled in their room.

“Shhh!” Lana whispered while clasping her hand over Yue’s mouth, “That’s for me to know, and for you to find out. Now, go! I will be out there before the guests get here. Just tell dad not to worry, I’ll be there on time.” 

With that, Yue reluctantly nodded her head and ran off to join her parents while Lana sneaked her way towards the library. 

Outside the palace, the guards sounded off another horn to prompt the crowd that the ship was only 100 feet away now. 

“Oh spirits, help me…” Arnook practically whispered yelled, making sure the crowd of tribe members surrounding the palace couldn’t hear him. Looking up to the sky as if the sun could give him an answer, Arnook muttered, “Of all days, why today, Lana?” 

Glancing over his shoulder at one of the guards standing a few feet behind him, Arnook signaled for the guard to come closer and mumbled, “Will you please go find my daughter in the palace?” With that, the guard nodded his head in panic, and left to search for the missing princess. 

Staring down at Yue, Arnook asked his oldest twin, “Why couldn’t you control her even just for this one day?” 

Yue was now fidgeting with her hands and gazed up at her father with a nervous grin. She quietly said, “Maybe Lana just had to go to the…. bathroom?” Yue finished her horrible lie with an anxious laugh. 

Almost to save her from continuing to lie to her father, the guards on top of the wall gave one last horn signal that the ship had started to slow down and for the gates to be opened, so that the men waterbenders could go out on the canoes to retrieve the delegates. 

Running a hand over his face, Arnook actually couldn’t believe that Lana wasn’t standing beside her family yet. 

At that moment, he heard the palace doors open. Arnook snapped his head back at the commotion to see a running Lana practically skid herself across the top of the icy ground next to Yue. 

Sheepishly smiling at her father, Lana nonchalantly apologized, “I’m so sorry, dad. I just really needed to go to the bathroom.” 

Yue’s jaw felt like it hit the ground. She gawked at her twin like Lana was a mind reader with saying what Yue had just told her father. 

Even though she felt so worried only a few minutes before Lana had shown up, Yue sighed and dropped her shoulders in relief that her twin made it on time. 

Peering past Arnook to see her daughter actually look presentable at the perfect timing, Soma smiled at Lana while Arnook silently scolded her with his eyes. 

Lana gave them both an impish grin as she straightened out her back to look towards the front gates. 

Standing back to be in line with her family, Soma slightly turned her head towards Arnook and whispered, “See, I told you she would be here. Nothing to worry about.” She gave Arnook one last hand squeeze to tell him good luck. 

Arnook gave his wife a sideways glance and a small smile as he felt more than prepared to sign this treaty now that his whole family was standing beside him.

Suddenly, the wall gates were being opened by waterbenders to allow the canoes to be lifted up with the delegates on them. 

As her parents and the crowd were distracted by observing the gate opening process, Lana nudged her elbow against Yue’s arm. 

Scanning her surroundings to make sure no one was watching them, Yue turned her head towards her sister as Lana lifted up the bottom fabric of her parka to reveal a martial waterbending scroll strapped to her body. 

Yue let out a small gasp, not loud enough for anyone else but for Lana to hear. 

Lana just smirked and sent her twin a look of accomplishment as she fixed her parka back down to hide the scroll from plain sight. 

Yue focused back her attention on the canal and their guests while slowly shaking her head, holding back a giggle even if she thought what Lana did was foolish. 

Thinking of her library escapade, Lana smugly smiled at her twin as she turned back to stare out at the canal trying to keep herself together from getting overly excited at successfully taking her first warrior scroll. 

After being distracted by each other, the girls suddenly saw the canoes coming to a stop at the bottom of the palace. 

Now extremely curious to see these Fire Nation delegates, Lana started to lift her head up and stand on her tiptoes to get a better look at who was getting off the canoes.

Lana could see five men dressed in all red elaborate robes with guards situated behind them with dark helmets and royal armor detailed by the Fire Nation emblem. 

What Lana didn’t expect to see was also a young boy, who was around the same age as her and Yue.

Without ever meeting a member of another nation, Lana didn’t know what to think of him. She was also confused as to why this boy was even accompanying the delegates on the treaty deal to her tribe.

Lana glanced over at Yue in confusion, but Yue just rolled her eyes at her sister. 

Yue thought to herself that if Lana had paid any attention during their history lessons, she would know exactly who that boy was. She could have sworn their teacher just went over this with them a few days ago, but Yue figured Lana’s head was somewhere in the clouds at that time. 

She continued to observe the boy, and saw that he wasn’t wearing warmer clothes, and had to stifle a laugh. She wondered how in the spirits he wasn’t absolutely freezing being up in the North Pole. 

Yue shot her another look as if to tell Lana that she better stop fooling around, or else she will have to have yet another scolding from her father. 

While their guests continued to climb their way up the palace stairs, Lana finally got to see the young boy close up. 

As the boy looked up at the Water Tribe royal family, he scanned from Lana’s mom, to father, to Yue, landing on Lana. 

Her dark blue eyes met his golden bronze ones. Lana quirked one of her eyebrows out of surprise as she couldn’t stop herself from thinking how his eyes were like the fire in the grand chimney of the palace ballroom. 

Lana watched the boy refocus his attention on looking at her father. Despite being so young, the boy carried himself pretty confidently among the other Fire Nation men, yet he couldn’t stop himself from glancing around the palace. From the way he scanned the buildings with bewilderment, Lana doubted the boy had ever seen either the North or South pole before. 

All at once, the men stopped at the top level of the stairs platform and walked a few feet towards the royal family. 

Now finally paying attention to the rest of the men, Lana could see that the boy was standing next to a rather shorter, thicker man compared to the rest of the guards and delegates. 

What was also different from the rest of the delegates was the warm smile the shorter man had on his face while looking at her father. 

One of the Fire Nation guards stepped forward beyond the delegates and said, “Chief Arnook, thank you for welcoming us to your city.” The guard gestured to the kind looking man and said, “This is General Iroh, the brother of Fire Lord Ozai.” 

At this, Chief Arnook and General Iroh smiled at each other and bowed to show their respects for one another. 

“And this”, the guard held out his arm towards the young boy, “is Prince Zuko, the son of Fire Lord Ozai and the Crown Prince of our nation.” 

Standing there dumbfounded, Lana thought she should’ve probably guessed it, but she was absolutely shocked to see the prince of the Fire Nation at her doorstep. Yue shot Lana a knowing smile as she was right about who he was. 

Following his uncle’s movements, Prince Zuko bowed to Chief Arnook and stood back up almost straighter than before to show how serious he was taking this all despite being so young. 

“Welcome to our nation, Prince Zuko, General Iroh, and delegates of the Fire Nation. We hope your travels to our city were not strenuous on you. We are looking forward to signing this treaty with you and start mending our nations as allies for many years to come”, Arnook declared to his guests as Iroh smiled, and Zuko nodded to acknowledge the Chief’s words.

Iroh took a step forward and said, “Thank you for your hospitality for us to come and sign this treaty, Chief Arnook. I want to extend this gratitude from Fire Lord Ozai and the whole Fire Nation. Fire Lord Ozai sends his regards as he couldn’t leave his nation, but entrusted myself and Prince Zuko to represent the Fire Nation’s agreement, and sign the treaty in his place. We are looking forward to this new alliance, and can only hope that this brings prosperity to both our nations.”

At this point, Lana peered up at her father to see Arnook giving the general a warm smile. 

Arnook stepped forward and said, “Thank you, General Iroh. We also look forward to this treaty agreement to ensure our people can continue living peacefully as we look to the future. Please, let me introduce my family to you.” 

Arnook looked to his left and put out an arm towards his wife. Sharing a quick smile with Soma, Arnook said, “This is my wife, Lady Soma of the Water Tribe.” 

Soma bowed to the delegates as all of the Fire Nation men bowed to her. As she straightened back out, Soma wore a welcoming smile to make her guests feel more comfortable within their city. 

Now gesturing to his left, he turned towards his twins and said, “And these are my daughters.” 

Being closest to Yue, Arnook gestured and introduced her first. “This is Princess Yue.”

Extending his arm a bit further, he gestured towards Lana and said, “And this is Princess Lana.” 

Both General Iroh and Prince Zuko bowed like before, while Yue and Lana copied their mother’s actions by bowing towards their guests. 

As they straightened back up, Lana and Yue smiled at the general and the crown prince. 

Now getting a closer look than before when he was walking up the stairs of the palace, Zuko could tell the girls were identical twins with opposing hair colors. 

At this realization that the girls were twins, Prince Zuko let out a gasp of surprise. 

Yue and Lana tilted their heads at him in opposite directions. At this, Zuko felt his face burn with a scarlet blush. 

Seeing the Fire Nation crown prince blushing before them, Lana couldn’t help but giggle with a hand over her mouth, while Yue nudged her with her elbow to tell her to knock it off.

Prince Zuko sheepishly looked towards the giggling girl, and felt his face become even redder than it already was.

What no one in the Water Tribe knew was that twins were extremely rare in the Fire Nation. 

He had actually never even seen twins before in his life around the palace city back in his own nation. Not that his father ever let him explore the surrounding area.

Realizing his nephew’s embarrassment, General Iroh finally said, “What a beautiful family you have. I see that the spirits gifted you with twins. In our nation, twins are extremely rare and often bring good luck to their families.” 

At this, Chief Arnook shared a look of pride as both he and General Iroh looked down and smiled towards the twins.

Now it was Yue and Lana’s turn to both blush from being the center of attention. Nonetheless, Yue gave the General and her father a soft smile wearing off her blush much faster than Lana. 

Lana looked at the ground and back up at Prince Zuko, seeing him now being the one to smirk out of enjoyment of not being the only one embarrassed within the first ten minutes of meeting. 

Rolling her eyes at the prince, she looked back at her father and the General to see that they had decided it was time for the Fire Nation guests to join the royal family inside the palace. 

As Iroh instructed the guards to gather his and Prince Zuko’s luggage and belongings from the canoes, Soma reached out to grab Yue’s and Lana’s hands to guide them back into the palace.

Going back inside the palace, Lana couldn’t help but look back over her shoulder to glance at the crown prince one last time.

Little did she know, the crown prince was watching her go back inside as well. 

Realizing both of them were staring back at one another, Lana widened her eyes out of surprise and quickly turned back around with a faint smile resting on her face. 

Zuko was embarrassed he was caught watching her, but as he turned around to where his uncle and Arnook were standing, he looked at the ground and felt himself start to slowly smirk again.

Unknowingly to both the little Princess and Prince was that Iroh saw their quick glances at each other while Chief Arnook was talking with his Counsel Tribe members next to the canoes. 

As he glanced from one to the other, Iroh couldn’t stop himself from thinking that this could be a very interesting friendship for his nephew.

He thought it was like the sun setting on the ocean for the very first time.


	7. Caught Red-Handed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Princess Lana leaves to hide the precious item she stole before the Fire Nation delegates arrived, she runs into big trouble. During the treaty feast, both the Northern Water Tribe Princesses and Prince Zuko learn new things about each other, while Zuko notices how different their family is in comparison to his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of anxiety

After the Fire Nation guards and Water Tribe palace staff brought in the luggage of the Fire Nation delegates to the bedroom corridor, both parties had some down time before the treaty feast. 

Her family was already sitting down in the guest waiting area of the ballroom, when Lana decided it was time to hide her new borrowed waterbending scroll somewhere safe. 

Lana gave Yue a knowing nod, and excused herself to run to their bedroom for a moment. 

Walking down the bedroom corridor, Lana turned her head to look over her shoulder and made sure no one was following her. 

As she was looking behind her, Lana started to slip out the strapped scroll under her parka and pick up her speed, attempting to make it to her room faster to hide it before anyone barged in to catch her red-handed.

Being distracted by trying to be stealthy, she didn’t even realize that two people were walking down the hallway towards her.

Colliding into something, Lana practically screamed,“Oof!” 

Landing hard on the ground, Lana felt the wind leave her body. She started to rub her head as she looked up to see what she even ran into.

Her eyes widened the size of watermelons seeing Prince Zuko sprawled out right next to her on the floor as he also began to rub his head. Her eyes continued to expand as she saw that the Fire Nation Prince was with General Iroh standing above them with a ridiculously stupid grin. 

“Ow! Can’t you look to see where you are going?” Zuko snapped out of pain. 

Lana winced as she sat on the ground gaping at him when suddenly, she became infuriated.

“Oh spirits, do you really think I meant to run straight into you?” Lana barked right back at the Prince, even if she was the one to cause this mess. 

Looking between the children, Iroh knew he needed to intervene to ensure their time spent together was actually going to go smoothly while they were guests in the Northern Water Tribe.

“Ohhh, Prince Zuko, is that really any way to talk to Princess Lana? She has graciously welcomed us into her home, and clearly didn’t know we were in the hallway, walking back to our rooms.” Iroh said as he picked up the fallen children.

As Prince Zuko and Princess Lana straightened out their clothes from being messed up from their collision, Iroh continued to say, “Please apologize for snapping at one of our hosts.”

Lana could tell Prince Zuko really didn’t want to apologize, but the way Iroh was looking at him made him feel guilty for saying something irrational when they had not even uttered a word to each other before now. 

Zuko glanced from the floor to Lana as he muttered, “I’m sorry.”

Iroh was about to ask Zuko what he was apologizing for, but he figured it was best not to push his buttons further. Iroh smiled at Princess Lana to hopefully clear the air some more.

Lana, surprised that the Fire Nation Prince actually apologized, felt as though it was her turn. 

“I’m sorry for running into you, it was honestly an accident. I was distracted, but I hope I didn’t hurt you too much”, Lana said sincerely.

Hearing her apology, Zuko gave her a faint smirk. 

Iroh looked between the two, and was genuinely shocked to see the children get along after being so irritated with each other only a few seconds beforehand. 

Remembering her mission, Lana jumped into action. “Well, I really must get going. But I will see you both at the feast very soon!” 

Lana started to practically sprint down the hallway until she heard General Iroh yell her name. 

“You seem to have dropped something!” Iroh said as he started to pick up the unraveling scroll.

Lana felt like time was moving in slow motion. 

Coming to an abrupt stop, Lana slowly turned around to see Iroh looking at her ‘borrowed scroll’ and instantly thought she was having a heart attack. 

Seeing the gears in Iroh’s mind start to process what the scroll contained and why Lana had it, Lana thought she was heading to the Spirit world a lot sooner than expected. 

At least she hoped, because if her father or any of the Water Tribe Council members found out about her taking a waterbending scroll from the archives, she contemplated how the Spirit world would be a whole lot nicer than the scolding she was going to receive. 

Watching his uncle look at the scroll with furrowed brows and Princess Lana’s now strange reactions to him looking at it, Zuko didn’t even know what to think. 

He stood on his tiptoes trying to get a better look at the scroll and saw that it contained waterbending movements. 

_‘Why would she be so nervous to see that my uncle was trying to give her back this scroll?’ _Zuko quickly thought as he looked back and forth from Iroh to Princess Lana.__

____

After standing there for what felt like a thousand Avatar cycles, Lana reluctantly started to make her way back to General Iroh and the Prince in shame. 

____

Finally reaching the two, Lana glanced up to Iroh with a sad expression written all over her face, waiting for the General to inform her that he had to tell the Chief what he was holding. 

____

She thought about what she was going to say to her father when-

____

“This will be our little secret, Princess Lana.” Iroh whispered as he interrupted Lana’s mental preparations for what was going to come. 

____

‘Wait, what?’ Lana quizzically thought as she didn’t seem to understand what General Iroh had just said to her.

____

Holding the scroll out to her more, Iroh gave her an understanding smile as Lana gently grabbed the scroll with a questioning look.

____

“Prince Zuko, nor I, will not be telling anyone of what we just saw. Isn’t that right, Prince Zuko?” Iroh winked at Lana with a reassuring grin as he looked over to his very confused nephew, waiting for Zuko to agree.

____

“Oh, o-of course… I won’t tell anyone.” Zuko answered earnestly. 

____

Furrowing her brows out of shock, Lana took the scroll from the General and held it to her chest as she gave them both an appreciative smile.

____

Lana could sense that Iroh understood how risky it was that she had taken this scroll, and couldn’t help but feel grateful that it was Zuko that she ran into instead of someone from her tribe.

____

She could also tell Prince Zuko had absolutely no idea what was going on, but Lana figured his uncle could fill him in later. 

____

Just hearing that General Iroh and Prince Zuko wouldn’t tell anyone was enough to make her heart stop from bursting out of her chest. 

____

“Thank you, General Iroh.” Lana said as she looked up at the man. 

____

Turning towards the prince, Lana shot Zuko a smirk and said, “And thank you, Prince Zuko. This means a lot more than you think it does.”

____

With that, Lana had to get back to her room as fast as she could to make sure something like what literally just happened, didn’t happen again to her, or because of her, twice in a row. 

____

As he watched Princess Lana sprint towards her bedroom, Zuko gawked at her retreating form. 

____

Looking down at his perplexed nephew, Iroh started to chuckle as he turned back around to head to his room. 

____

Zuko finally noticed that his uncle had left his side and promptly started to run to catch up to him, with one last look over his shoulder towards Lana as she escaped into her bedroom. 

____

Lana practically slammed her door shut, and slid against it to the ground, finally able to breathe. 

____

She didn’t know what guardian spirit was watching over here within the last five minutes, but she sent them silent gratitude as she looked up at the ceiling. 

____

Taking a deep breath, she glanced down at the scroll and smiled as she looked over some of the waterbending moves. 

____

As she remembered that she needed to find a hiding spot fast before anyone else found her with the scroll, Lana got up and shook herself from all of the nerves. 

____

Lifting her bed as best she could, Lana saw her bed frame had a small secure area that no one really ever looked at and promptly hid the scroll. 

____

Making her way back to the hallway, she started to get nervous that General Iroh and Prince Zuko would not keep their promises. 

____

____

____

As Lana walked back into the ballroom, Yue immediately sensed something went wrong when her twin was trying to hide the scroll. 

____

When Lana finally made eye contact with Yue with wide eyes, Yue furrowed her brows as if to ask what went wrong. 

____

Lana slowly shook her head, and they telepathically agreed that this conversation would be talked about after the feast. 

____

Sitting down next to her mother in the waiting area, Lana faked an enthusiastic smile at both her parents to not show her change of emotion since leaving their sides not even ten minutes ago. 

____

Not thinking really anything of it, Arnook looked at his daughters and said, “Shall we make our way towards the dining table to wait for our guests?” 

____

With that, Yue and Lana jumped straight up at the same time as if both of them were either insanely hungry, or anxious about something. 

____

Soma and Arnook shared a look, and Soma shrugged her shoulders, assuming it was the former option. 

____

As their family waited for their guests to arrive to eat the prepared, traditional Water Tribe food, Lana was trying to stay as calm as possible without fidgeting too much. She didn’t want to set off any alarms that something could be wrong. 

____

While Yue watched her sister, she looked around to see if anyone was watching Lana. Knowing no one was even batting an eye at her twin, Yue grabbed Lana’s hand in solitude to calm down her nerves. 

____

Without Yue even knowing what had happened, Lana turned towards her and gave a grateful grin. Lana thought about how Yue always knew how to help her, even if it was just as simple as holding her hand. 

____

As if the spirits wanted to mock Lana for trying to stay calm, two of the Water Tribe guards opened the ballroom doors to let General Iroh and Prince Zuko with the rest of the Fire Nation delegates walk in for the feast. 

____

Snapping her head to the noise, Lana’s eyes widened as she stared at the General and the Prince. 

____

Zuko, still confused as to what happened with Princess Lana and his uncle just beforehand, had glanced from Lana to the rest of her family. Zuko landed his eyes on Chief Arnook and gave him a small nod.

____

While filing into the room, Iroh gave Lana a warm smile and proceeded to walk closer to Chief Arnook. 

____

As the rest of the delegates and Water Tribe Council members stood behind their seats, Arnook gestured to the table and said, “Please, let us sit down and enjoy what the palace chefs have prepared for tonight’s feast.”

____

With that, everyone sat down. Arnook sat at the head of the table with General Iroh on his left and Soma on his right. Prince Zuko took a seat next to his uncle, while Lana elected to sit next to her mother with Yue on Lana’s other side. 

____

Right on cue, a few of the palace staff carried out a large metal tray with a steamy, giant sea crab on top of it. 

____

Following directly after them, several other staff members brought out platters of sea prunes, squid, seaweed soups and seasoned breads. Other kitchen staff promptly started to fill each of the wine glasses around the table with delectable Water Nation wine, except for the cups in front of the Princesses and Prince. 

____

If Lana wasn’t so anxious, she would have been foaming at the mouth at how delicious all of the food looked and smelled. Her anxiety didn’t stop her from thinking of what a wonderful job the chefs did to make the extravagant meals for their guests.

____

As the staff finished placing the trays on the ballroom table, Arnook smiled at his palace workers and said, “Thank you all, this looks truly incredible.”

____

The palace staff smiled back at their Chief, and proceeded to return to the palace kitchen. 

____

Zuko was eyeing the Water Tribe Chief as Arnook gave his gratitude towards his workers. Thinking it over, he couldn’t remember the last time his father ever even looked his servants in their eyes. 

____

As he contemplated this thought, a faint smile started to show on Zuko’s face at how kind Chief Arnook was to his people while always showing respect and appreciation. 

____

Without even realizing it, Zuko started to admire the Water Tribe Chief for being the type of leader he is. 

____

Arnook looked around at his guests and decided to stand up. “Today, we welcome new allies and friends to our table as we look forward to the future for our nations.” 

____

As he was about to finish his speech, Arnook held up his wine glass towards the Fire Nation delegates and his Council members. “May the spirits guide us towards healing and unity for generations to come.” 

____

Everyone picked up their cups and cheered each other for this new treaty. 

____

Sitting back down, Arnook started to eat with everyone else following suit.

____

As everyone was enjoying the delicious foods, Iroh decided to make conversation with the Chief. 

____

Taking a quick sip of his wine, Iroh said, “I couldn’t help but notice how many waterbenders you have within your tribe. I have always been amazed by waterbenders and how they are like their element.” 

____

Arnook smiled at Iroh in agreement. He looked towards Lana and said, “Only last week did we actually discover that my daughter, Princess Lana, is also a waterbender.”

____

At that moment, Lana’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. 

____

She instantly stopped chewing her food, and felt like she wanted to hurl from anxiety. Lana was going through all of the possibilities in her head as to what could happen next. 

____

Knowing him for only a few hours, she contemplated how this man could have just lied to her when he promised Prince Zuko and him would keep seeing her with a waterbending scroll a secret. 

____

Lana glanced from her father to the ballroom door, trying to figure out an escape plan in case General Iroh ratted her out. 

____

As if it felt like a million seconds of anticipation, Lana finally side eyed Iroh to await his response. 

____

Looking across the table at Lana, Iroh faked being surprised. “Oh, is that so? That is absolutely wonderful to hear!” 

____

Lana gaped across at Iroh, but controlled her face enough to not show her extreme shock at his words. She slowly nodded her head at Iroh. 

____

While Lana was slowly coming down from almost frantically escaping this whole situation, Zuko was staring at her out of pure shock from his side of the table. 

____

Besides seeing Chief Arnook’s guards waterbend the city gates to let them into the city, Zuko had never met a waterbender before. He was entranced by the fact that one of the princesses could actually waterbend. 

____

At the other end of the table, Master Pakku chimed in the conversation. “Indeed, Princess Lana is a natural bender, and all of us in our tribe are ecstatic she will be a healer alongside her grandmother.” 

____

Arnook smiled with pride at Master Pakku’s words while Lana shot a glare in Pakku’s direction. 

____

Right before Lana and Pakku could make eye contact, Yue intervened by grabbing Lana’s hand under the table to remind her that this is not the time to start a fight. She gave Lana an understanding look, but felt it was necessary to shame her twin into not doing anything irrational. 

____

As Chief Arnook continued his praises of Lana’s potential to be one of the tribe’s best healers, Iroh nodded in agreement as he sent Lana a small smirk. 

____

Absolutely shocked that General Iroh continued to keep her secret of stealing the warrior scroll, Lana smiled back at him. 

____

As she glanced at Prince Zuko sitting next to the General, she could tell that Zuko was dumbfounded at the realization she was actually a waterbender. She started to furrow her eyes at him as she realized General Iroh clearly didn’t tell the Prince before arriving at the feast. 

____

Sensing both his nephew’s and Princess Lana’s state of surprise, Iroh decided to change the topic. 

____

“That is truly amazing, Chief Arnook. Did you know our crown prince right here is a firebender?” He turned to look at Zuko sitting next to him as Iroh beamed with pride. 

____

Zuko was instantly knocked out of his bewilderment at finding out Princess Lana’s waterbending abilities. As if Iroh was saying this to get him to join the conversation, Zuko refocused his attention to the change of discussion. 

____

Hearing about this new information, Lana and Yue both whipped their heads out of shock towards Zuko. Neither of them have ever met a firebender before, or have ever even seen firebending in action. 

____

Arnook glanced at Zuko before saying, “I did not know Prince Zuko was a firebender, that is also great news to hear.”

____

Moving to get a better look at the Prince, Arnook continued. “I am sure you will be a very powerful firebender as all of your past predecessors have been. I look forward to seeing your progress over the years as our nations continue to thrive in peace.”

____

Zuko swelled with gratification as he acknowledged the importance of Arnook’s words. He gave Arnook a faint smile. “Thank you, Chief Arnook. I am honored.” 

____

Zuko looked across the table at the perplexed twins, and immediately felt a blush grow on his face from now being the one in the spotlight. 

____

____

As the feast continued, all of Lana’s anxiety over their shared secret disappeared. 

____

After the food was cleared and everyone was ready to retire for the night, Arnook stood up from his chair and cleared his throat. “I would just like to thank our guests and my Council members for joining us this evening for our feast. I hope you all come tomorrow well-rested to agree on the terms and conditions of our treaty agreement.”

____

With that, Arnook glanced down to Soma and gestured his arm out to her. Smiling up at her husband and feeling proud of how well the dinner went with their guests, Soma stood and hooked Arnook’s arm with her own to dismiss their guests. 

____

As everyone started to leave the ballroom, Lana caught Prince Zuko looking at her parents with furrowed brows. 

____

Tilting her head quizzically, Zuko noticed Lana was staring at him off to the side. Shaking his thoughts out of his head, Zuko immediately caught up to his uncle leaving the room. 

____

Finally alone with their parents, both Yue and Lana let out sighs of relief. 

____

Yue side-eyed Lana as she was itching the whole night to know what got Lana in such a state of panic before the dinner. 

____

Walking through the bedroom corridor with their daughters in tow, Soma and Arnook stopped at the twins' bedroom door to say goodnight. 

____

Kneeling down to give them both kisses on the tops of their heads, Arnook and Soma left the twins at their door to go back downstairs to finish preparing the palace staff for tomorrow’s events. 

____

As Zuko was about to enter his own guest room, he looked down the hallway to see Lana and Yue saying goodnight to their parents. 

____

Watching Chief Arnook and Lady Soma leave, Zuko saw Yue rip Lana into their shared bedroom as Lana gaped down the hallway to see golden bronze eyes staring right back at her.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, leaving kudos and comments as always!! :)


	8. Followed by Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lana tells Yue what happened right before the treaty feast. Later on in the night, Lana leaves for her usual nighttime adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yue, Lana and Zuko: Age = 7

Slamming their door shut, Yue yanked Lana to her bed and sat her down.

“Okay, I’ve been patiently waiting all night to know what got you so worried earlier. I know it has to do with the scroll, so just spit it out”, Yue whisper yelled at her twin.

Taking a deep breath, Lana sheepishly glanced from her hands in her lap up to her overly eager sister. 

‘Well, there’s really no easy way to say this’ Lana nervously contemplated before following Yue’s orders.

“I kind of…. got caught? Hah.” Lana shrugged and threw her arms up while trying to gauge Yue’s reaction.

Sitting there dumbfounded, Yue gawked at Lana like she just told her the whole world was going to explode in a matter of seconds.

After a second of letting Lana’s words seep into her brain, Lana saw Yue’s nerves of steel and crystal blue eyes pierce through her as if Yue could kill her right then and there.

Lana started to feel herself sweat out of proportion under Yue’s stare. Sensing Yue’s heart beating outside of her chest, Lana started to prepare herself.

_‘Oh boy, and here we go in 3...2...1’ ___

____

“You what?!” Yue yelled. “Lana, how could you be so careless? I’m trying to be patient with you, but this is so much worse than anything you have ever gotten yourself into, and when dad finds out that you-“

____

“Listen, listen!” Lana cut Yue off. “Dad is not going to find out because it was General Iroh and Prince Zuko who caught me.”

____

Hearing this, Yue sat back further on Lana’s bed. 

____

Still, Yue scoffed. “Okay, and what does that have to do with the price of tea in Ba Sing Se? Either way, you were caught, Lana!”

____

“I know how bad it sounds, but after I was caught, Prince Zuko and General Iroh promised me that they would keep it a secret.” Lana tried to reason with Yue before she continued to freak out. 

____

As Yue heard this, she leaned closer to her twin in shock. 

____

Yue gave Lana a questioning look as she asked, “But… But, why?”

____

“Honestly, I don’t really know why. It was like General Iroh understood.” Lana glanced towards their bedroom door.

____

At that moment, Lana started to chuckle. “You should’ve seen the look on the Prince’s face though, it was honestly hilarious how confused he was.”

____

Completely ignoring that last bit of Lana’s information, Yue asked, “Okay, but how do you know that they won’t tell dad?” 

____

Lana smiled at her, reminding herself that Yue was always the one keeping a mental checklist to make sure they covered all of the potential consequences of Lana’s actions.

____

“Well, first of all, if there was a perfect timing for either one of them to tattletale on me, it would’ve been when dad told them I was a waterbender.” Lana explained to her sister as she thought it through. 

____

“But other than that, I think we just need to trust them. They actually seemed to be honest. And did you hear what Prince Zuko said? He talked about being honored at what dad said about him at dinner.” 

____

As she examined that moment more, Lana asked Yue, “How can someone be honored if they lie or break a promise?” 

____

Not expecting that kind of question, Yue’s shoulders dropped in surprise.

____

Then, Yue started to laugh. 

____

Lana shot Yue a questioning gaze as she honestly didn’t know what could have been funny at what she just asked her. 

____

“I’m sorry,” Yue pretended to wipe fake tears from her eyes. “I just kind of find it hilarious that this question is coming from you, as we are talking about you stealing a scroll, lying and breaking a promise to dad.” 

____

Lana was purely shocked at Yue’s mockery. Her jaw dropped as she let out an amused gasp. 

____

Seeing this look on Lana’s face, Yue couldn’t help but cackle at finally being the one to shock her sister with her wit.

____

Lana felt a dark red blush creep onto her face as she pursed her lips as if to fight off a smile from growing at Yue’s laughter.

____

Thinking fast on her feet, Lana slowly took her pillow from behind her back, and hit Yue on her side thinking that would get her to stop mocking her. 

____

Not anticipating that kind of response from Lana, Yue was the one to now gasp in surprise while Lana looked at her and quirked one of her eyebrows as a smirk appeared on her lips. 

____

Yue took this as a challenge. 

____

She quickly got up and grabbed one of her own pillows sitting on her bed only a few feet away and proceeded to smack Lana with it. 

____

Cackling with laughter after a few pillow hits, the girls fell down on Lana’s bed entangled in each other’s arms. 

____

As Yue tried to catch her breath from laughing so hard that her belly started to hurt, she glanced at Lana and gently told her, “I know you didn’t mean to, but you have to be more careful with this scroll from here on out.”

____

“I know, I promise.” Lana reassured Yue as she met her gaze. 

____

“Okay, good.” Yue started to close her eyes as she felt her exhaustion wave over her from the day's events. “Let’s get ready for bed, I’m so tired.”

____

Pulling Yue up, Lana agreed as they both started to change into their nightgowns. 

____

____

Not even an hour later, Lana was staring up at her ceiling as sleep was not her friend at the moment. 

____

Lana turned her head towards her sister’s bed to see if Yue had already fallen asleep, but with only little beams of light coming off the moon through their window, Lana couldn’t tell. 

____

“Psssst, Yue?” No response.

____

A little louder this time, Lana hissed “Pssst.”

____

Half asleep, Yue rolled over in her bed to face her twin. Prying one of her eyes open, Yue whispered, “What now, Lana?”

____

“Are you awake?” Lana got up on her elbows in her bed to get a better look at her sister. 

____

Yue groaned. “I am now.”

____

“Oh.” Lana contemplated for a second before deciding to shoot her shot. “Well, now that you’re up, come with me on an adventure. I want to go out to the roof again.”

____

“Not tonight, Lana. I’m exhausted from today.” Yue was already falling back to sleep, but then quickly thought to advise Lana. “If you’re going to go alone, please just be careful and make sure you don’t get caught twice in a day.”

____

Not wanting to miss out on her nightly adventures, Lana promised she would be careful on her own. 

____

Getting up from her bed, Lana pulled her parka over her head, grabbed her gloves and slipped on her warm boots. 

____

Lana quietly opened their bedroom door and poked her head out to make sure the coast was clear.

____

Sneaking down the hallway, Lana slipped and let out a small shriek. She winced as she realized that that one noise could’ve gotten her caught yet again.

____

Lana facepalmed her forehead as she tried to adhere to Yue’s advice, reminding herself that she had to be more cautious, especially now that she was alone on this exploration. 

____

Shaking herself from the slight stupidity of her slip up, Lana continued down the hallway to get outside.

____

____

Not expecting to hear anything outside of his room, Zuko jumped out of his bed when he heard a high-pitched sound. 

____

As he got more and more nervous as he reached his door, he took a deep breath before slowly cracking it open to peer into the hallway. 

____

Zuko didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, until he nudged his head a little further out of the doorway.

____

As he looked around, Zuko caught a glimpse of jet black hair with a strip of white creeping down the corridor. 

____

Furrowing his brows, his intrigue as to where Princess Lana was going got the best of him. He hastily slipped on his shoes, and stealthily followed after the Princess.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love how patient and kind Yue is in the OG ATLA, but I think she deserves to get frustrated with Lana’s BS once or twice. 😏
> 
> Also, Yue’s clap back of "what does that have to do with the price of tea in Ba Sing Se" is actually a saying from our real world that basically means what does that have to do with anything. I switched it up to match an ATLA location to give Yue something sarcastic to say at Lana’s ridiculousness.


	9. As Long as You Always Catch Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During her nighttime adventure, Lana is shocked to see that someone followed her outside. As Zuko and Lana get to know each other, they both end up surprising the other. The truth always finds its way out somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of losing a parent

Lana continued to check her surroundings as she glanced at the palace doors. Reassuring herself that everyone was asleep, she slipped out of the doorway and hid behind one of the ice pillars. 

Looking from left to right, Lana crawled to the palace stairs and slowly got up to peer over the siding. 

As soon as she made sure no one was down below, Lana sprinted down the stairs and around the corner to get to her climbing point. 

When she reached Yue and Lana’s usual spot, Lana bent down and picked up a handful of snow as she tried to remember her new waterbending moves.

A few days ago when Lana and Yue were out on their night time adventure, Lana had figured out a way to increase her scaling time by ten-fold while also creating a strategy to safely climb the palace walls. Thinking on her feet, Lana scooped up some snow as Yue checked their surroundings for anyone walking by. 

Concentrating hard on the snow ball, Lana thought of how she could manipulate the snow to form ice. 

Hovering her hand over the snow with spaced out fingers, Lana slowly started to lift up her hand as she steadily closed her fingers together. 

At her movements, Yue and Lana watched the snow change from snow to liquid to hardening ice. As she almost reached all the way her little arm could go, Lana pinched her fingers together to shape the ice into an ice pick. 

Amazed by her skills, Lana and Yue looked at the new climbing tool, then at each other with smiles from ear to ear as Lana swelled with pride. 

Shaking herself out of the memory, Lana refocused her attention on forming the snowball in her hands. Quicker than a few days ago, she rapidly formed her snow into a pointed ice pick using her new move. 

As she placed the ice tool on the ground, she picked up more snow and replicated her technique to create a second one. 

Making sure the new tools were long and sharp enough to impale the frozen palace walls, she then examined them to ensure they would be able to hold her weight.

After she decided the ice picks were good to go, Lana walked closer to the wall and started to climb. 

When Lana was about a couple feet off the ground, Zuko came out of his hiding place and walked over to the wall, staring at her with furrowed brows. 

Since Lana was completely focused on climbing up the wall, she didn’t even hear anyone’s feet scrunching in the snow. 

Looking up at her, Zuko nonchalantly asked her, “What are you doing?”

Scared she was caught, Lana let out a gasp while by accidently pulling out both of her ice picks, resulting in her landing on her back in front of the person that spooked her. 

Zuko winced at her small fall, feeling instantly bad that he was the cause of this.

Not really knowing what to do, Zuko stared down at Lana laying on the ground with wide eyes while Lana started to look around to see who just made her fall down. 

Landing her eyes on Prince Zuko standing there like a fish out of water, she glared at him and felt her blood begin to boil as she got up to shake the snow off of her. 

“Spirits, Prince Zuko!” Lana whisper yelled, trying not to attract any neighboring attention even though she wanted to scream at the boy with all of her might. “You could have killed me!”

Shaking himself out of his shock at the Princess’s fall, Zuko was appalled that this girl actually thought it was HIM that could’ve killed her. 

“Me? You’re the one that is climbing your palace’s walls!” Zuko whisper yelled right back at her as if she was a wild child. He considered that was actually the case as he gawked at her.

“Well, if you obviously saw that I was climbing the wall, then why did you ask ‘what are you doing?!’” Lana hissed.

She got him there. Zuko’s face started to turn bright red as he was lost for words. He looked down and started to sheepishly rub the back of his neck. 

In a small voice, Zuko quietly said, “I guess I did say that. Listen, I didn’t mean to scare you and make you fall, are you okay?”

Surprised by the fact Prince Zuko was checking to see if she was hurt, Lana felt herself start to calm down. 

“I’m fine, it was only a few feet up.” Lana answered, trying her hardest to not sound still annoyed at him. “What are you doing out here, Prince Zuko?”

Again, Zuko was disoriented with Lana being so blunt with him. 

Finding it hard to look her in the eyes, he pretended to look around the area. “Honestly… I heard a small noise in the hallway, so when I went to check out what it was, I saw you sneaking out, so I … followed you...Hah.” Zuko chuckled out of awkwardness. 

Finding what he just said to be a little creepy, Zuko threw up his hands to explain himself further. “Oh, not like that, I wasn’t stalking you or anything…”

Watching Zuko panic and trip over his words, Lana had to fight off a smile from appearing on her face.

Zuko took a deep breath and hung his neck. He looked up at Lana and said, “Look… I just wanted to know what you were doing, that’s it.”

As she regarded Zuko’s words, she felt like she owed him a little explanation for how much he was just freaking out. 

“If you must know, I was climbing the walls to go on the rooftop.” Lana explained with her hands on her hips. 

“The rooftop?” Zuko gaped at Princess Lana. “But why are you trying to go to the rooftop?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Lana gave Zuko a smirk. “Well, why don’t you come with me and I can show you why.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Zuko glanced up towards the top of the palace.

This time Zuko got Lana to laugh. “What, is the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation scared of heights?” Lana said in a mocking tone. 

Zuko snapped his neck from looking at the palace to Lana in mere seconds. He took her words as if it were a challenge.

He scoffed and said, “No of course not!” Zuko dropped his shoulders in defeat. “Fine, I’ll climb up with you. But it’s just to see what you are talking about.” 

Happy with his acceptance, Lana didn’t say anything as she started to pick up snow to waterbend Zuko’s own ice picks to help him climb.

As he watched Lana waterbend, Zuko was entranced by her skills. 

He couldn’t help but notice how Princess Lana looked so calm as she concentrated on influencing the water to her command. Zuko thought about how it was like the complete opposite of her usual fierce demeanor. 

After Lana inspected the ice picks like she checked her own, she walked over to the wall with Zuko behind her. Lana turned around and handed the two freshly made ice picks to him. Picking up her own climbing tools, she shoved them into the wall. 

Not wanting to look like an idiot in front of the Princess, Zuko followed Lana’s lead right next to her. He watched how she would take one of the ice picks, move her arm and foot placements up bit by bit until she was quickly climbing up the wall. 

Although he was much slower than her, Zuko was getting the hang of her technique. 

Almost at the top, Lana glanced down to make sure he was doing okay. Seeing how focused he was, Lana felt a small grin grow on her lips. 

Pulling herself over the edge, she took a second to catch her breath just as Zuko was about to do the same. Lana held out her hand to help him with climbing over the rooftop edging. 

Zuko grabbed Lana’s hand and she yanked him up. Completely out of breath from the climb, he rested on his back.

“Wow, that was crazy.” Zuko said as he was panting from the physical exhaustion. “How many times have you done that?”

Lana sat criss cross next to him and started to laugh. “A lot. I climb up almost every night.”

Zuko’s eyes widened, he didn’t expect her to be so fearless. “That’s pretty incredible.”

“Well, why don’t you get up so I can show you why I do it so much.” Lana said as she stood up and turned around. 

Following Lana’s orders, Zuko turned onto his stomach and pried himself off of the rooftop. Turning around to where Lana was standing, Zuko was absolutely stunned. 

Looking down from the top of the palace, Zuko could see the whole city with each of the buildings looking so small in comparison to being down on the ground.

His jaw dropped as he looked further out to see the miles and miles of infinite sea. Zuko listened to the roaring sounds of crashing waves that seemed to echo from being on top of the palace, like it was music he never heard before. Zuko couldn’t stop himself from thinking that each of the ripples of water seemed like they were dancing as they glowed from the enchanting moonlight. 

Lana glanced from the view towards Prince Zuko. Seeing him in such a state of amazement, Lana let out a happy chuckle. 

She smiled at him and said, “This is why I come out here at night. After you see it once, it is hard to stay away.” 

This got Zuko to focus back on her. “I have never seen an ocean view like this before, it is so… beautiful.” 

Happy to see Zuko enjoying it so much, Lana felt a wave of relief crash over her body as she sat down on the rooftop. “It really is. Every night, I come here and think of faraway places that the waves lead to… Honestly though, I just don’t really think I will ever get to see those kinds of places.”

At that moment, Zuko snapped his head towards Lana, and sat down a few feet away from her. 

“But, why would you want to leave?” Zuko looked down into his lap and grew quiet. “Your family clearly loves you, and your twin is here.”

Lana stared at Zuko, trying to figure out what caused him to whisper the last bit of what he just said. 

Sensing something was wrong, Lana explained to him her reasoning. “It isn’t that I want to leave my family, I love them with my whole heart. It’s just that I have read about all sorts of adventures, but I know my parents won't ever let me leave.”

With that, Lana shot Zuko a sad smile and tried to reason with him more. “I mean look at you, your parents let you come to our tribe for this treaty, that is the kind of adventure I want to have.” 

Hearing Lana mention his father and mother, Zuko winced and looked away from her. 

Lana watched him flinch and was instantly conflicted with not wanting to pry but also wanting to know what was wrong. 

“I’m sorry, did I say something that hurt your feelings?” Lana quietly whispered.

Zuko slowly looked back to Lana, and contemplated telling her about his family. 

He never even talked about what happened since that fateful day. Zuko honestly didn’t know if he could trust her with his feelings. 

As he stared into her dark blue eyes, he thought about how he had promised Lana to keep her secret of having a waterbending scroll, for reasons he still wasn’t aware of. He figured that if she could trust him, then he could probably trust her. 

“No, it’s just that… the last few months have been tough on my family.” Zuko said as he looked away towards the ocean view and put his arms to his sides.

What he didn’t expect was for Lana to grab one of his hands. 

He glanced down to their hands and back up to Lana’s face. She held a sad, yet empathetic smile that made him want to continue to talk. 

“My father let me come here, because I have been having a hard time ever since the last time I saw my mom.” Zuko said as he stared out into the ocean view while trying to hold back a few tears. 

“I don’t know if she just left us or if she died. It’s all so confusing, but one day she was there, then the next day, she was just...gone.”

After a second of silence, Lana squeezed Zuko’s hand as she softly told him, “I am so sorry, Prince Zuko. If she left, she had to have had a reason. And if she did pass away, the Water Tribe believes that our loved ones stay by our side, watching over us until we join them again in the spirit world.” 

Hearing Lana tell him that made one of Zuko’s tears escape his eyes. He hastily wiped it away. “Thank you for saying that, Princess Lana. I’m sorry for crying.”

“Please, just call me Lana. And why are you apoligizing for crying?” Lana quietly asked.

Zuko looked at her with furrowed brows. “My father told me crying shows weakness, and I don’t want to be weak.”

“No…” Lana paused to think for a second. “It means you are strong.” Lana gave Zuko a small smile trying to make him feel better. 

Gaping at her, Zuko slowly started to smile in return. “Thanks for listening to me, Lana.” 

“Anytime, Prince Zuko”, Lana replied. 

“Hey, if I get to call you Lana, then you have to call me just Zuko.” Zuko chuckled at his own logic. 

Lana laughed and answered, “Okay, just Zuko it is.” 

Trying to continue their conversation, Zuko asked Lana, “If you don’t mind me asking, why was it such a big deal that my uncle caught you with that scroll earlier?”

Now, it was Lana’s turn to wince.

Seeing how Zuko just opened up to her about something so personal, she figured it was now her turn to share something personal. 

“In the Northern Water Tribe, our tradition is that men waterbenders are warriors, who learn how to fight, and women waterbenders learn how to heal. I stole that scroll earlier because it has martial waterbending forms, and I have decided that if my tribe won’t let me learn how to fight, then I’ll just teach myself.” Lana said confidently. 

Confused by the tradition, Zuko asked “Why doesn’t your tribe let women learn how to fight? In the Fire Nation, both men and women firebenders learn.” 

Lana now giggled at his question because that’s the same question she has been asking herself ever since she discovered her bending. 

With a shoulder shrug, Lana answered, “Honestly I am not sure, and I’m not really sure I will ever understand.”

Lana took a deep breath before continuing to explain. “I am so happy that I can learn how to heal the people in my tribe, but I can’t imagine not being able to learn to use my waterbending to protect and defend others as well.”

Zuko couldn’t help but look at Lana with pure admiration. “That is so selfless of you to want to protect your people.”

Lana smiled at Zuko as he felt a blush grow on his face. 

As he reflected more about what Lana just said, he also couldn’t stop himself from thinking about how she was the total opposite of his little sister… besides their fierce aggression when they got angry despite being in such small bodies. 

As he thought more about it, he started to chuckle. “Wow, you are nothing like my sister. All my sister wants to do is light things on fire.”

Lana laughed at what he said, and threw her head back. Zuko giggled with her when he noticed how her laughter was so carefree, like music to his ears. 

Once she stopped laughing, she started to notice how cold she felt even though she had lived in the North Pole her whole life. 

Looking at Zuko, she could feel him radiating heat. ‘Huh, so that must be why he didn’t show up wearing a parka earlier today’, Lana contemplated. 

Trying to get warmer, Lana scotched closer to Zuko for body warmth. 

As he realized what she was doing, Zuko felt his cheeks blush even darker than before. 

Not even batting an eye at his blushing, Lana looked out to the ocean as she said, “I’m actually really glad you and your uncle are here. It’s nice to have new friends.”

Zuko gawked at her, not anticipating that kind of thing to come out of Lana’s mouth. He quietly asked her, “Are we friends?”

Lana let out a big giggle at Zuko’s question. She turned to look at him and replied, “Well I know we just met, but I would say so. I haven’t really told anyone about my dreams to learn martial waterbending, especially not like this… Well, obviously except for Yue.”

Zuko’s face dropped as he realized that he has never had a friend before. All of his “friends” were his little sister's friends.

Staring back at her like she just offered him anything he has ever wanted, he said, “I would love for you to be my friend.”

She giggled at Zuko again and said, “Good, cause now you’re stuck with me… Plus if you tell anyone about my rooftop spot, I’ll have to kill you.”

Shocked she would even say such a thing, Zuko’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. 

As she looked at his confused face, Lana started to hysterically laugh. She noticed how fun it was to get a rise out of him. 

Lana turned her head towards the ocean view and gazed over the waves, but Zuko was still looking at her as if he had never seen such a strange little creature like her before. 

After a bit longer of checking out the view, both Zuko and Lana decided it was time to get back down and head to bed.

Lana showed Zuko how to climb back down over the edge and use the ice picks somewhat like before. 

Before she started to scale the palace wall again, Lana turned towards Zuko and warned him, “You gotta be extra safe, it’s a bit more slippery than it was when we were going up.”

As he watched her climb over the edge, Zuko took a deep breath. Even though he did just fine with climbing up, he was now a bit nervous to head back down. 

Still, he wanted to prove to Lana that he could do it just fine. So, after Lana got a bit farther down, he followed her a few feet away. 

As he got over the rooftop edge, Zuko could tell that walls were significantly slicker than before. 

Trying not to look down at how high they were, Zuko continued to follow Lana’s technique. 

When Zuko was about twenty feet away from the ground, he punctured the wall and started to lean his weight on the ice pick. 

What he didn’t expect to happen was for the ice pick to snap in half. 

Zuko let out a small shriek as he had to hold onto his last ice pick, praying to the spirits that the other pick could hold all of his weight. 

Hearing Zuko scream, Lana looked up to see Zuko dangling with only one of the tools still intact. She gasped in shock as their eyes made contact. 

Seeing that he was only a few feet away from each other, Lana moved a bit closer to make sure if he was going to fall, she would be able to do something about it. 

At that moment, Zuko’s last ice pick broke. 

As he started to free fall, Zuko let out a loud scream as he feared he was going to drop right onto the ground. 

Out of nowhere, he suddenly stopped falling. 

Zuko looked around to see what really happened, and as he looked up, he saw Lana holding onto the back of his robe with one hand and her other hand on her ice pick. 

Lana glanced from Zuko to her handgrip on the pick. She could hear and feel the ice pick start to crack in her grasp.

Thinking as fast as she could, she looked down past Zuko and saw a snowbank leaning against the palace. At that moment, she remembered one of the moves she saw on the stolen waterbending scroll she stashed away, and she decided it was time to try out a new waterbending skill. 

Not the best time to learn a new trick she admitted to herself, but she figured if she couldn’t learn it in a stressful situation, then when would she ever know how to do it? 

She turned her attention to Zuko and asked “Do you trust me?”

Zuko clearly didn’t hear her in his state of panic as he yelled up at her, “What?!” 

“Do you trust me?!” Lana practically screeched.

Zuko didn’t have time to think if Lana could actually save him, as he screamed, “Uh I think I have to, right?”

Rolling her eyes at him, she prepared herself for what was about to come. “Okay, that’s good enough for me!”

As Lana was about to let go, she felt like time was moving in slow motion. 

Letting go of her last pick, she turned in the air to face the snowbank. 

As Zuko and Lana were freefalling, she swayed her arms in front of her, forming a stream of water from the snow. As she manipulated the water mid-air, Lana curved her arms in front of her body like a crashing wave. As soon as she saw the wave react to her command, she clenched her fists to cause the water to freeze. 

As the wave froze, Zuko could see that Lana formed an ice slope right below their bodies. 

Just before Zuko could say or do anything, both of them started to slide down the ice slope and they came to an abrupt stop. 

Out of shock of not being hurt, Zuko rested on his back and was utterly perplexed at what Lana just did.

“Wow, I actually did it!” Lana yelled as she sat up from sliding off the slope on her back.

Hearing this, Zuko sat up and rested on his elbows. The look of shock at Lana saving both of them wasn’t about to leave his face for a while. 

As she congratulated herself a little bit longer, she looked over at Zuko a few feet away from her. Seeing the look on his face, she couldn’t help but laugh at his bewilderment. 

Finally getting up to her feet, she walked over to him and held out her hand. 

“Next time,” Lana paused to take a deep breath, “Please don’t fall, so I don’t have to do that again.”

Shaking himself out of his utter amazement of Lana’s new skill, Zuko grabbed her hand and let Lana pull him up to his feet. 

Rubbing the back of his neck out of embarrassment for being the one to almost injure both of them, Zuko tried to think of something witty to say. 

Thinking on his feet, Zuko looked at Lana and said, “Well, maybe I will... As long as you always catch me.” 

As soon as Lana heard him, she smiled from ear to ear. Zuko returned the smile with a grateful grin. 

Snapping herself out of the moment, Lana walked back over to the formed slope and waterbended it back to snow. 

As she looked at the palace wall with a bunch of puncture holes in the frozen surface, Lana remembered her other new waterbending move she figured out the last time she tried the ice picks when she was with Yue. Unknowingly, Lana had discovered the waterbending move called the breath of ice. 

Lana took a deep inhale of air, and blew it up the sides of the palace.

Using the water vapor from her breath, the holes from their ice picks started to fill up as a trail of frozen water camouflaged over the wall. 

As she nodded at her work, Lana turned back to see Zuko yet again entranced by her abilities. 

Turning towards the palace entrance, Lana felt a deep blush start to burn up her face and neck. 

As they both sneaked through the corridors, Zuko and Lana proved to be a good tag team as she watched the front and he watched the back for anyone trying to catch them.

Finally, they got to the bedroom corridor and stopped at Zuko’s door. 

Being the first one to talk since being outside together, Zuko started to whisper. “Even though we almost died, I had a lot of fun with you tonight.”

Lana started to quietly giggle with a hand over her mouth. She whispered back, “Oh, we wouldn’t have died, we definitely would have gotten hurt and in big trouble, but not on my watch.”

Zuko giggled at Lana’s words. “Well, goodnight. I will see you in a few hours.”

With that, Lana gave Zuko a smile, said goodnight and started to walk down to her bedroom. 

As she was about to reach her door, she heard Zuko whisper yell down the hallway. “Oh, and Lana!”

Lana’s eyes met his as she whisper yelled back, “Yeah, Zuko?”

“Thank you... For everything tonight.” Zuko said with a smile as he turned his doorknob and closed the door. 

Shocked to hear Zuko say that, she slowly turned towards her door with a smile resting on his face.

As she sneaked into her bedroom and closed the door as quietly as she could without waking up Yue, she walked over and got into her bed. 

As Lana started to get comfortable, she jumped in surprise by Yue’s quiet voice. 

Half asleep, Yue asked her, “Lana, did you have a good adventure?”

Lana thought about it for a second as another grin grew on her face. 

Smirking towards her sister, Lana replied, “Yeah… One of my best adventures so far.”

Yue faintly smiled at her sister’s response, as they both said their usual goodnight sayings to each other. 

As Lana snuggled deeper into her bed, she thought about what just happened and started to giggle at the ridiculousness of the whole night. 

What neither Lana or Zuko realized was that both of them fell asleep thinking about their adventure together, and how great it is they are now friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we finally have some one on one bonding time with Lana and Zuko! 
> 
> You know how little kids draw on their walls? Well, Lana stabs ice picks into her walls instead. 
> 
> I wanted to include a lot of these soft moments as we see Zuko progress through the years along with Yue and Lana. Clearly, Zuko is still heavily influenced by Ursa atm, but we all know that is going to change as we continue. I think it’s important though that Zuko is getting this exposure to Lana and her family, and vice versa. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, leaving kudos and comments! ☺️


	10. The Last Day of the Treaty

The next morning, Lana woke up smiling. She truly never expected to be friends with a person from another nation, let alone the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. 

Finally getting up to start her day, Lana turned towards Yue, who was already up and dressed for their lessons. 

As Lana looked at her twin, she stretched her arms over her head and practically sang, “Good morning, Yue!” 

Yue noticed Lana’s extremely jolly mood and tilted her head in confusion at Lana. “What’s got you so happy this morning?”

Lana skipped over to her dresser and looked over her shoulder at Yue, trying to not to show her excitement over last night. 

“Oh nothing, I guess I just woke up on the right side of the bed.”

As Yue heard this, she let out a quiet chuckle. “But you always tell me that the morning is evil.” 

With no response from Lana, Yue knew something was up, something that Lana wasn’t telling her. From seeing her right before bed to now, Yue knew it had to have happened when she snuck out. 

“Anyways, are you going to tell me what happened last night on your adventure?” Yue said as she turned around to make up her bed, trying not to see the look of shock on Lana’s face from her guessing what got her into such a good mood. “You said it was one of your best so far, so tell me about it.”

Trying to stay calm and collected, Lana nonchalantly said, “Oh nothing really…” Losing her cool, Lana whipped around with a huge smile on her face and blurted out, “Besides the fact that I’m friends with Zuko now!”

Not expecting this, Yue practically shouted, “Wait what?” She turned around and gawked at her sister. “What happened? How did you become friends with the Prince overnight?” 

Lana made a nervous face as she tried to not freak Yue out, then she glanced to the floor. Even though she wanted to tell her twin everything that happened, Lana couldn’t help but feel a little guilty when she ended up roping Yue into all of her messy situations. It was difficult not to feel like a hardship for her sister sometimes, especially when Lana had a special way of making a lot of messes. 

Lana almost didn’t answer until she looked back up at her twin. By the way Yue looked at her for an explanation, Lana knew it was time to come clean. She needed to confess. 

“Well… He actually kind of… caught me sneaking out.” Lana sped through the last bit of her explanation.

Hearing this coming out of Lana’s mouth, Yue gasped. “Lana! I told you to be careful or else you would get caught.” She took a second to sigh at her sister.

Once she got over her initial surprise at Lana's confession, Yue was happy that Lana wasn’t caught by anyone from their tribe. She then got excited to know more. “Well okay, he caught you, but what happened next?!”

Lana giggled at Yue’s response. She nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. “He asked me what I was doing, and I told him that if he really wanted to know so badly, he should just follow me up.” 

Out of amusement of Lana’s usual funny mannerisms, Yue laughed while shaking her head at her twin. “Well, did he?”

Lana quirked one of her eyebrows at Yue as her lips changed into a smirk. “You bet he did! You should’ve seen his face when he saw the view, it was honestly priceless.”

“So how’d you become friends? Just by climbing up and seeing a view?” Yue asked Lana. 

Thinking on her feet, Lana decided to just skim over the details of what really happened without breaking Zuko’s trust. 

“We kind of just talked, and I told him about our tribe’s traditions when he asked why I stole the scroll.”

As she quickly remembered what happened next, Lana decided it was best not to mention almost getting hurt with Zuko by their fall down the palace walls if it wasn’t for her and her quick thinking. 

Lana finished her story by saying, “And I showed him some of my new waterbending moves!”

Yue sensed Lana was missing some important details, but in the end, she just wanted Lana to enjoy having a new friend. 

“That’s awesome, Lana, I’m happy for you.” Yue smiled widely at her twin. Getting her parka over her head, Yue fixed her hair and said, “Well, we should probably get going. We have to head downstairs to see mom and dad before we go to lessons.”

As soon as Lana heard the word ‘lessons’ come out of Yue’s mouth, she groaned and flopped back onto her bed.

Yue couldn’t help but laugh at her sister’s reaction. “Yeah… That’s much more like the Morning Lana I know.” 

An hour later, everyone was meant to arrive at the palace meeting room so that the treaty agreements between the Fire and Water Nations could begin. 

As Iroh was walking down to the room with Zuko, Iroh couldn’t stop looking at him with furrowed brows. He noticed Zuko’s uplifted spirit. 

“Now, Prince Zuko, either you had the best sleep of your life last night, or you did something during the night. Which one is it?”

Stunned that his uncle asked him that, Zuko started to panic. “I… uh… slept really great.” 

Iroh side eyed his nephew as they continued to walk. Trying not to show any knowledge of the actual truth, Iroh hummed his acceptance of Zuko’s answer. “Mmhm that’s good to hear.”

Little did Zuko know that Iroh went to check on him during the night to make sure his nephew was okay, sleeping soundlessly. When Iroh saw Zuko wasn’t in his bed, a state of panic washed over him until he heard two little sets of feet tapping down the frozen corridor. 

Once Iroh realized who those feet could've belonged to, he snuck back into his guest room across from his nephew’s. As he heard Zuko thank Lana for whatever they just did and Zuko’s door close with Iroh’s ear smushed against his own door, Iroh had a faint smile on his face as he turned and went back to his bed.

Smirking at his nephew now without Zuko seeing him, Iroh couldn’t help but feel happy to see that Zuko actually had fun with one of the Water Tribe Princesses.

After Yue finally pried Lana off of her bed, the girls met with their parents in front of the treaty meeting room. 

Before the meeting, Arnook and Soma were looking at the girls with pride as they both praised their daughters for how well behaved they were for the Fire Nation arrival and feast. 

Clearly, they missed a few things that happened, but Lana kept her mouth shut out of not wanting to get herself into trouble, or bring Yue in as an accomplice. 

As a way to reward the twins, Arnook and Soma decided they would let them relax for a bit. Arnook knelt down to them and said, “Would you like some time to walk around the city before you both have to go to your lessons?”

Lana didn’t need to be asked twice before she smiled widely at her parents and looked at Yue like that offer was the best thing in the world. 

As they thanked their parents before leaving to go have some free time, Lana saw General Iroh and Zuko walking up to the meeting room. 

Deciding to invite him with her and Yue, Lana ran over to Zuko. Instead of asking, Lana cut to the chase as she told Zuko, “Come with me and Yue! We’re going to walk around the city.”

Zuko looked from Lana to Iroh as he felt conflicted in his duties as Crown Prince to the treaty agreement. 

Before Zuko could even say anything, Iroh abruptly interrupted Zuko’s thoughts. “Why don’t you run along with the twin princesses, Prince Zuko?”

Zuko gaped at his uncle and said, “What? I thought father wanted me to be there when they were going over the treaty?”

Iroh smiled down at his young nephew and tried to reason with him. “Oh, Prince Zuko, the Princess just asked you to join them. I’ll be sure to fill you in on every single detail of the treaty later. Go have fun, remember we’re only here until later tonight.”

Even though Zuko was still conflicted, he looked back to Lana and saw how much she wanted him to join.

After nodding his head at his uncle, Lana grabbed Zuko’s hand and dragged him away to meet up with Yue. 

Happy to see the little prince and princess getting along so well, Iroh smiled as Yue started to join them in running out of the palace doors. 

As they continued to walk around their city, Zuko noticed how many people were looking at the twins and how happy everyone was to see them, even though the girls didn’t really notice. 

He looked from twin to twin, and saw how bubbly they were to be talking to their people, as members of their tribe came up and greeted them as they went about their day. 

Zuko furrowed his brows looking at the girls, thinking about how relaxed and spirited they were when walking around and speaking with their community. Back in his nation, his father never even let him leave the palace area. 

After a bit of walking around, Lana came up with an idea. She turned to her twin and said, “Yue, let’s introduce Zuko to Nana!” 

Thinking it was an awesome idea, Yue replied, “Yeah, that would be great! As long as she doesn’t have a healing lesson, Lana.” 

Turning towards Zuko, Yue kindly smiled at him and said, “I’m sure she would love to meet you.” 

With that, Yue and Lana dragged Zuko over to the healing hut and saw Yagoda chatting with a few of the elders outside.

Surprised to see her granddaughters, Yagoda beamed at them then tilted her head as she saw they were pulling a little boy she had never seen before. 

“Oh, my little water lilies!” She knelt down to give the girls a quick hug. She stood back up and smiled as she looked down at her three visitors. “Who have you brought me to meet today?”

Excited that her grandmother was about to meet her new friend, Lana stepped up and said, “Nana, this is Zuko. He’s the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation!”

As she looked from Lana to Zuko, Yagoda smiled fondly. “Well, nice to meet you, Prince Zuko.”

After a while of talking with their grandmother, Yagoda wanted to brag about Lana for her newly discovered abilities to the young Prince. 

Glancing towards her granddaughter, Yagoda said, “Now, Prince Zuko, did you know our Princess Lana here is a waterbender?

Trying to stay calm since he knew all too well, Zuko looked at Lana as he gave their grandmother a response. Thinking on his feet, he simply shot her a knowing smile and said, “Yes, so I’ve heard.” 

As she heard his response, Lana started to turn away as a blush crept up her face. She was so happy to know he could keep her secret so well. 

Placing a hand on Lana’s shoulder, Yagoda continued to praise her granddaughter. “She’s going to be an amazing healer, just like her grandmother.”

As they saw Lana’s face drop from a smile to a frown, both Zuko and Yue sent her sympathetic smiles, trying to make her feel better. 

As they continued their time walking around the city, Lana brought both Yue and Zuko to the abandoned area where she first discovered her water bending.

Lana started to look around to make sure no one was around. After she made sure no one could see them, Lana whipped out the scroll to show Yue and Zuko. 

Both Yue and Zuko’s jaws dropped seeing her with the scroll as their eyes grew the size of watermelons. 

Seeing nothing wrong with what she just showed them, Lana nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and said, “What?”

Yue facepalmed her forehead as she whispered, “Spirits Lana, you really are too ballsy for your own good.” 

Now knowing their tribe’s tradition, Zuko couldn’t agree more.

“Hey, can you really blame me? I want to learn these moves and return it to the archive before anyone finds out it’s gone. All three of us know who they’re going to come for first.” 

Yue and Zuko glanced at each other, tilted their heads as they thought about it, then immediately nodded in agreement.

Even though he just met Lana, Zuko already knew very well that she could get herself in trouble in a blink of an eye. 

Lana wanted to start practicing her bending right away, so she instructed Yue and Zuko to be her look outs to make sure no one would sneak up on them. 

Having not really ever had alone time together, both Yue and Zuko didn’t really know what to say to eachother. 

Trying to end the awkward silence, Yue said, “I heard you got to see Lana’s favorite place in the whole city last night.”

“Yeah, it was incredible… I’m glad we didn’t get hurt after I fell last night.”

As Yue heard this, she furrowed her eyebrows. Yue leaned in closer to Zuko and said, “Wait what? Why would you have gotten hurt?” 

Instantly regretting saying what he said to Yue, Zuko gave her an awkward chuckle and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, hah… Lana didn’t tell you?”

As he continued to panic and feel awkward about ratting out both himself and Lana, Zuko was surprised to hear Yue start to laugh.

“No she didn’t.” Yue glanced over her shoulder to look at Lana. “I think she didn’t tell me because she didn’t want me to get worried or upset. Lana usually gets herself into trouble, and I can tell sometimes she feels like she’s a burden to me.”

Glancing back to look at Zuko, Yue continued to say, “But not only is she my family, but she’s my twin, my best friend. I would do anything for her, whether she asked me to or not.”

Hearing Yue talk about Lana like that, Zuko couldn’t help but smile at their incredible bond. He felt a ping go off in his heart as he thought if his family felt like that for him. It seemed like Yue was the one to help Lana get out of most of her trouble, while his little sister was always the one to mostly get him into trouble. 

Seeing Zuko thinking about something she wasn’t aware of, Yue turned around to watch Lana’s waterbending as she felt a smile grow at how happy Lana looked while she practiced. “Lana’s bending is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

Shaking himself out of thinking about his family, Zuko glanced from Yue to where she was looking. After he turned around, his gaze completely softened when he saw Lana bending with such determination and concentration. Zuko couldn’t help but smile and admire her.

“Yeah, she is.”

As she realized Zuko clearly didn’t hear her say ‘Lana’s bending’ and assumed she said ‘Lana’, Yue’s eyes widened and then softened at his words. 

Without Zuko noticing, Yue gave him a teasing smile as she turned back around to keep guarding the area, letting Zuko continue to watch Lana in amazement. 

After Lana practiced and got the hang of each of the moves on the scroll, Lana sat next to Yue and Zuko on the ground. Turning towards Zuko, she thought of how she had never seen his bending before.

Thinking this was a good idea, Lana turned towards him and asked, “Zuko, why don’t you show us some firebending? 

Not expecting this, Zuko became nervous as ever before and instantly felt a blush appear on his face. Glancing away from the twins, he whispered, “Uh… I don’t know.”

While Lana encouraged him to show them, Yue could tell he was nervous. “Lana, c’mon, don’t push him.”

Zuko kept his eyes away from the girls as he thought about it some more. The truth was that Lana was so amazing at her waterbending, he just felt like he probably wasn’t going to be able to compare to her. 

As he finally glanced back at the twins, he saw the disappointed look on Lana’s face. Taking a deep breath in, Zuko shrugged in defeat. “Okay I’ll show you a couple of moves I know.”

Zuko stood up and walked to the center of the abandoned area. As he took a deep breath in, he centered his body. 

As fast as he could, Zuko then twisted his body and punched his fist out to strike a mini fireball. He then showed the girls a set of ten fire fists as he continued to move through the practicing area. Changing up his forms to show them more, he lifted up one of his legs and kicked it out, making a small stream of fire jet out of his foot. 

As he finished up his routine, he remembered a new firebending move his uncle just showed him. Turning around towards the twins, Zuko took a big inhale of air and blew it out, forming a small breath of fire to escape his mouth. 

Looking up to see Lana and Yue’s reactions, Zuko was shocked to see looks of amazement on their faces. He immediately felt a deep red blush creep up his neck and face.

Lana yelled, “That was amazing!” Lana and Yue jumped in the air with all of their excitement. 

Even if he messed up a few times because of his nerves, Zuko was beaming with a smile from ear to ear all because he actually impressed both of the twins. 

As they walked back to go to lessons, all three of them were so happy that Zuko joined them during their free time around the city.

Lana looked at Zuko as they ran up the palace stairs. “Maybe next time you visit, we can spar.”

“Spirits Lana, not so loud!” Yue gaped around as she quickly checked to see if anyone heard her twin. 

Rolling her eyes, Lana looked to Zuko to hear what he had to say. 

Zuko loved watching the twins' mannerisms, especially towards each other, he could see why they worked so well together. 

He observed that when one was too feisty, the other was perfectly sweet. Zuko noticed that the former was usually always Lana, at least when they were together.

“Uh… Yeah, I would like that.” He smiled towards her as he instantly saw Lana’s excitement. 

Back in the palace, the girls dropped Zuko off at the door of the meeting room and said their goodbyes. They turned around arm and arm walking towards their lessons room.

As he watched them leave, Zuko saw Yue point something out in the palace and say something to Lana while Lana threw her head back and let out a loud laugh. 

Zuko couldn’t stop himself from smiling, but yet again got a little jealous of how close their sibling relationship was. 

After their lessons, Yue wanted to grab something to eat while Lana left to find Zuko.

Watching her run away to find him, Yue started shaking her head as she prayed to the spirits that Zuko continued to survive Lana’s endless energy. She just hoped he could handle it.

Seeing him in the hallway with General Iroh, Lana snuck up behind Zuko as a horrible idea popped into her little head.

Creeping up behind him, Lana screamed and grabbed his shoulders, immediately scaring the life right out of him.

The look on his face as he turned around made Lana keel over in a cackling laugh. Yup, she was sure that getting him worked up was definitely worth the death stares she received afterwards.

Iroh stared in shock at the child, then immediately softened his gaze as he looked between the two. He was utterly amused that this carefree, fearless child had befriended his kind, loving nephew. 

Settling down from her laughter, Lana said to Zuko, “Wanna go play?”

“Hmm, I don’t know.” Zuko said.

Lana noticed Zuko was looking up to his uncle as if he could plead with him to let him go. Lana decided to cut in and ask, “General Iroh, would it be okay if I played with Zuko just for a little bit?”

“Please, Princess Lana, call me Iroh.” Iroh said as he smiled down to her. 

Lana giggled at him with a hand over her mouth and said “Okay, Iroh.” 

Iroh looked down towards his nephew and started to nod, giving him the okay to go and enjoy the last few hours of his time here. 

Looking back to Lana with a smile on his face from Iroh’s approval, Zuko asked, “Okay, what do you want to do?”

Lana quirked her eyebrows as a smirk appeared on her face. 

Even though she already knew what they were going to do, Lana pretended to think as she looked up at the corner of the ceiling and put a finger to her chin. “Hmmmm, what about…”

Suddenly, Lana jumped to tap him on his shoulder and yelled, “Tag, you’re it!” 

With that, she started to laugh as she ran away from him and his uncle.

Shocked she just did that, Zuko stood there dumbfounded before his determination to chase Lana kicked in. 

“Hey, not fair!” Zuko yelled as he raced to tag Lana back. 

Iroh watched the two run through the palace to go outside as he heard Lana’s giggling stop as the palace doors shut. 

Out of all his amusement, Iroh started to chuckle and shake his head as he stared at the closed palace doors.

Turning away to head back into the meeting room, he thought about how Princess Lana was like an ocean wave coming back up the shore towards a turtle-crab during high tide, sucking the crab back into the abyss of the unknown. 

Slowly but surely making the turtle-crab come out of its shell and helping it find its way back home. 

As the last of their belongings were loaded onto the canoes to return to the ship, Lana and Zuko were standing off to the side while all of the Fire Nation delegates and Water Tribe Council members were saying goodbye to each other.

“When will I see you next?” Lana whispered as she didn’t want to say goodbye. 

Zuko looked at her with a sad smile. “Well, my uncle told me that we have to make two trips a year to keep the treaty agreement, so I probably won’t see you for a while.”

“Well, we’ll be friends forever, right?” Lana said, trying to make them both feel better. “So I’ll just miss you until I get to see you again.”

As Zuko looked at Lana, he couldn't help but feel grateful for meeting her, and Yue for that matter. He honestly felt so thankful that his father suggested to go with his uncle to the Northern Water Tribe. 

As Zuko stood there thinking about this, Lana jumped on him and gave him a big hug. Slowly realizing what she was doing, Zuko wrapped his arms around her tightly.

As they got out of their goodbye hug, Zuko and Lana shared warm smiles before Zuko said goodbye and turned around to walk towards his uncle and the canoes to leave.

Lana waved goodbye to both Zuko and Iroh, and already couldn’t wait to see him again.

She would count the minutes until she heard the horns be blown to know the Fire Nation Prince had arrived at their shores again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, “the morning is evil” quote is a direct shoutout to my home girl Korra, thank you for noticing.
> 
> Fun fact: Turtle crabs are actually in the ATLA universe comics... they are literally just hermit crabs 😂
> 
> Next chapter is going to be a time skip to when Yue, Lana and Zuko are a bit older. Thanks for reading as always! ☺️


	11. Three Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three years after the Fire and Water Nation treaty agreements started. While waiting for Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation ship to arrive at the NWT gates, Lana starts to reminisce about the last time Zuko came to visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yue, Lana and Zuko - Age: 10
> 
> Flashback is shown with ~start~ to ~end~

-Three Years Later-

At the bottom of the palace stairs, Lana was squinting her eyes to the top of the Northern Water Tribe wall looking at the guards, waiting for them to blow the horns.

Lana showed up extra early to make sure she was going to be there on time for when Zuko, Iroh and the other delegates finally arrived. She wasn’t about to make the same mistake as the last time he had showed up.

As she was tapping her foot impatiently on the frozen ground with her arms crossed over her chest, Lana couldn’t stop herself from becoming more and more restless.

As she waited for the Fire Nation ship to show up like it usually did every six months, Lana started to become completely lost in thought as she remembered the last time Zuko came to visit.

~Flashback to Six Months Earlier~

The whole family and tribe knew that today was the day when the Fire Nation delegates were coming back to continue the terms of the treaty agreement.

As Arnook, Soma and Yue lined up at the top of the palace stairs, Arnook felt like he was having déjà vu from the first time they were meeting General Iroh and Prince Zuko.

Sighing while hanging his head, Arnook glanced from his wife to his oldest twin. Picking between the two, he guessed that if anyone knew where Lana was, it would be her twin sister.

As he knelt down to be eye level with Yue, Arnook asked, “Do you know where she is this time?”

Yue gave her father a nervous smile as she tried to come up with another white lie to protect Lana. “Uhhhh… I think she told me she was going to another healing lesson at Nana’s.”

Taking this as a good enough explanation, Arnook stood back up and looked at his wife on his left. “Do you think she knows that today is the day?”

As Soma heard this, she let out a loud laugh. “Love, this has been the only thing she has been talking about for the past two months. She’ll be here, I know she will be.”

Deciding to believe his daughter and his wife, Arnook glanced up to the wall watching his men look out beyond the horizon.

Back in the abandoned area that Lana claimed for herself as a waterbending practice arena, Lana was working on a different martial waterbending scroll that she managed to take after putting back yet another borrowed one.

She was absolutely thrilled that no one had ever seen her during her nightly adventures to get it. But until someone caught her, she was determined to continue borrowing them. What did she really have to lose?

Over the past two and a half years, Lana managed to keep her warrior training completely under wraps from anyone. Well everyone, except for obviously Yue and Zuko.

After setting up a snowman to use as a mannequin to practice her precision, Lana walked a bit away to look at the scroll to figure out a new move called the water whip.

Lana lifted her arms up with her hands pointed downwards to waterbend a frozen ice column. She placed the scroll on top of it, so she could glance at the scroll while trying out the new move.

As she pulled up some water from the frozen ground, she swayed the stream of water from one side of her body to the other. Pushing from her right leg to her left leg, she swirled the water in between her hands to form a ball.

Taking a step back with the water ball, she quickly stepped one foot out and slashed her arm parallel to the ground. Lana swiftly waterbended the ball into a whip across the arena.

Barely striking the snowman with the whip, Lana let out a grunt of frustration.

As she took a deep breath, Lana glared at the snowman as if it moved out of the way at the last second, which was certainly not the case.

Deciding to try it one more time, Lana glanced at the scroll and noticed that she needed to concentrate on shifting her weight more throughout the stances.

Focusing on her aim this time, she went through the stances and more forcibly slashed her arm towards the snowman. The water followed her command as it effortlessly traveled across and striked through the snowman’s left side.

Lana jumped with her hands in the air out of excitement for actually getting it right the second time around. Bringing herself back to concentrating, she started to practice the whip over and over again until there wasn’t a single part of the snowman left.

Lana keeled over with her hands on her knees, completely out of breath.

Suddenly, she heard the echoes of horns be blown throughout the city.

Gasping out of pure shock, Lana facepalmed her forehead as she realized she had completely lost track of time.

She rolled up the scroll and securely fastened it below her parka, and sprinted as fast as she could from across the city towards the palace.

As she kept running, Lana looked up at the highest frozen wall to see that the guards were already waterbending the wall back up. She cursed herself knowing that Zuko and Iroh were going to beat her to the palace.

Sitting in the canoe, Iroh could tell Zuko was extremely anxious to see Princess Lana.

Ever since their first visit to the Northern Water Tribe, Zuko had become best friends with both of the twins, but Iroh always knew that Zuko had a little bit of a crush on Lana.

He saw how much Zuko admired her and loved spending time with the wild child, despite how much Lana made him get out of his comfort zone.

Thinking of how he could calm Zuko down, Iroh placed a hand on his shoulder.

Over the past couple of months, Iroh had observed how difficult it was for Zuko to be away from the young Princess.

From his father’s and his little sister’s belittlement, Iroh noticed how his nephew was growing less and less confident in his own abilities back in the Fire Nation.

He also knew that Lana had always been a boost in Zuko’s confidence over the years, from her praises in his firebending to her quick wit to make him laugh.

The truth was that Lana was his safe place, where he could truly come alive and enjoy being a kid.

His home in a person.

As the canoe came around the last turn, Zuko’s anxious face changed into a faint smile.

Once the palace came into view, Zuko quietly whispered, “Finally.”

Taking a deep breath in, he had to physically restrain himself from jumping into the canal to get to the palace even faster.

Once the waterbenders stopped the canoe, Zuko’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as he noticed one of the royal family members was missing at the top of the stairs.

Trying to keep his cool, Zuko stepped off the boat and slowly started to search for her. After he couldn’t find her around the palace area, he sent Yue a confused look with furrowed brows as if to ask her ‘where is she?’.

Trying not to show her amusement of how she thought it was like watching a baby polar bear dog look for its mother, Yue had to stifle a giggle and just smile back at Zuko.

Before Zuko could even take one step up the palace stairs ahead of the rest of the delegates and his uncle, he was suddenly tackled from the side.

Letting a scream escape his throat, Zuko was completely shocked as he laid out on the frozen ground.

As he tried to sit up to see who just attacked him, Lana kept her arms wrapped around his sides and wouldn’t let him go.

Since he couldn’t move, he glanced down and immediately saw Lana’s face squished against his shoulder.

Even though he was confused that this was how she decided to greet him, Zuko wrapped his only free arm around her, smiled and closed his eyes out of happiness.

He didn’t even care that the royal family and his father’s delegates were softly giggling at the Prince and Princess.

“Oh, how I’ve missed you.” Lana quietly cooed to Zuko.

As soon as he heard her words, Zuko cracked open his eyes and was thankful that Lana still had her eyes closed as a deep blush colored his cheeks.

“Trust me, Lana…” Zuko said as he let himself close his eyes again, still entangled with her on the ground. “I’ve missed you more.”

He was finally back with her at last.

After Iroh picked up Zuko and Lana from the ground, Lana gave Iroh a big hug.

Lana had grown fond of Zuko’s uncle over the past two and a half years, especially after she finally got him to teach her how to play Pai Sho the last time they visited.

“Princess Lana, it is so good to see you again.” Iroh said while letting go of the young Princess. “I was afraid Prince Zuko was going to jump over ship halfway from here and the Fire Nation just to get to you quicker.”

“UNCLE!” Zuko practically screeched. Zuko hung his head in embarrassment while Lana threw her head back and almost fell over from how hard she laughed.

Now shaking her head at Iroh, Lana smugly smirked and said, “Did you see the look on his face when I wasn’t up there with my family?”

Iroh nodded as he looked between the two children. “Yes, Princess Lana, at least right before you tackled him. I thought he was going to have to search every inch of this city just to find you.”

“Okay, enough you two!” Zuko yelled as he tried not to burn his shoes into the frozen ground out of how flustered Iroh and Lana could always get him.

Lana rolled her eyes and nudged his side. “Oh, alright, hothead. Let’s run up to see my family!”

Instead of waiting for his answer, Lana grabbed his hand and started dragging him up the stairs, with Iroh chuckling and walking up behind them.

Even though Soma and Arnook started to shake their heads at seeing their daughter pull the Fire Nation Prince up the stairs, they both have gotten very used to it at this point.

After being friends for so long, no one really batted an eye at seeing her drag him around like a rag doll. If anything, they were more surprised at how much Zuko continuously let her do it.

Finally at the top of the stairs, Chief Arnook and Soma greeted Zuko and Iroh, happy to know they made it safely to their city once again.

After the initial greetings were over, Yue stepped over to Zuko and pulled him into a warm hug.

“Did you miss her as much as the last time?” Yue teased Zuko in his ear while they were still hugging.

Even though Zuko yet again felt embarrassed, he already knew that answer.

“You know I always do.” Zuko quietly whispered back into Yue’s ear.

Yue broke apart their hug and they smiled at each other. They both glanced back to see what Lana was doing, and saw her welcoming the other Fire Nation delegates back to the city.

As they watched Lana be so bubbly and animated out of all of her excitement that the Fire Nation was finally there, Yue and Zuko glanced back at each other and let out quiet giggles.

As all of the Fire Nation delegates and Water Tribe Council members were getting ready to have their usual treaty update meeting, Lana was trying to convince Zuko to go hang out with her in the city.

Zuko had put up a good fight, telling her that sooner or later, he would have to start attending these meetings if he was going to be the next Firelord, but yet again, Lana wouldn’t hear it.

“C’mon, please Zuko! You have forever to learn how to do that, you just got here! Besides, Yue is busy and I have nothing to do.” Lana was practically on her hands and knees begging him to leave.

He was about to tell her no, until he saw the saddest look cross Lana’s face. “Oh, alright, Lana… But, just for a little bit.”

Even though she knew he was going to cave, Lana gave him a huge smile as she started to wave goodbye to everyone. Hooking her arm around Zuko’s, Lana pulled him away to the palace doors.

As they were walking through the city, Zuko was about to ask Lana where she was taking him. But as soon as he thought more about it, he didn’t even need to ask.

Seeing Lana’s abandoned practice arena come into view, Zuko decided to surprise her with their usual game of tag. He unhooked his arm from hers, tapped her on her shoulder and yelled “You’re it!”

Not expecting him to be so playful right off the bat, Lana’s eyes widened before she started to run after him.

Ever since that first time they played tag together, they always found a way to shock each other with a surprise game. It was just usually Lana that started it.

As she chased after him in her arena, Zuko was laughing as he watched Lana race after him over his shoulder. Not seeing her waterbend a piece of ice right in front of his foot, Zuko let out a small yell as he tripped over it.

Lana thought it was the funniest thing in the world until she also tripped over his body, resulting in her falling face first into the snow.

They were both absolutely stunned to be sprawled out on the ground, all over the place. Once their eyes met, they both saw how much snow was all over their faces.

After a second of realization, they both curled up into balls and started cackling with their hands on their stomachs from how bad their bellies started to hurt from laughing so hard.

Finally calming down, Lana swirled her hands in front of Zuko’s face to waterbend the snow off of him. After Lana did the same for herself, they both sat on the ground, happily looking at each other after so much time spent apart.

As she decided what they were going to do next, Lana stood up onto her feet. Knowing he would never say no, Lana quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Wanna spar, little hothead?”

Zuko smirked at her, and hastily stood up. “As long as you don’t cheat again.”

Lana let out a loud laugh at his words. “Oh, we both know I won our spar the last time you visited fair and square.”

“If you call freezing my feet to the ground and tapping me on my chest to make me fall backwards fair, then sure, it was fair.” Zuko said just to tease her.

“Well, Zuko, maybe this time, you’ll actually see it coming.” Lana replied, just to see him get worked up.

Now determined more than ever to finally beat her in a sparring match, Zuko narrowed his eyes at her as she walked across the arena.

He couldn’t stop himself from noticing how confident Lana carried herself. Zuko saw how she had the same look she always did when she thought she was yet again going to win.

Lana just stood from across the way, staring at him, waiting for him to start their match.

Zuko knew how she usually started out, and had a lot of time the past couple of months to figure out how he could actually win against her. This time, he was going to let her make the first move.

As she was soon becoming impatient on waiting for him to bend at her, Lana pulled up some water from the ground and tried striking a water whip at him.

Zuko rolled out of the way, and kicked his own stream of fire at her, hoping to knock her over to pin her down.

Lana saw this move coming, and quickly swayed her arms up to form a frozen water shield.

Even though Zuko’s fire melted her shield right away, it gave her a second to pull up more water. She started to wave her hands from front to back as she shot a wave right at him.

Seeing Lana make this form, Zuko knew he had to get around the wave if he stood a chance at not falling over and losing the sparring match.

Running around her wave, Zuko started to shoot a few fireballs at Lana yet he quickly got annoyed that his firebending missed her every single time because of Lana holding a water ball up in front of her body to block his attacks.

Thinking as quickly as he could, Zuko knew that Lana wasn’t as good as he was to close up, hand to hand combat.

As he tricked her into believing he was going to her right side, he quickly pivoted and sidestepped around her back. He held her in a tight bear hug with his hands around her arms crossed over her chest.

As he held onto her in a tight bear hug, Lana realized she couldn’t move her arms to win their match. Thinking on her feet, she tried to think of another way to get him to let go of her.

An idea popped into her head that she knew he never would’ve seen coming.

Lana turned her head to look at Zuko and saw his head was right over her shoulder.

Without giving him a second to know what her counteract to this was going to be, she kissed him on the cheek.

Feeling her lips pressed against his cheek, he instantly let her go a little bit as his jaw dropped. He glanced to look at her in the bear hug, absolutely shocked she actually just did that.

As she felt his grip become undone from holding her so tightly, Lana spun out of his arms and waterbended a stream of water to knock him down.

Zuko was instantly on the ground and had no idea what just happened. He was stuck in between being happy out of her kissing his cheek and angry that she just won.

“Lana!” He yelled, “That’s cheating!”

“Oh, c’mon Zuko! It was just a new sneak attack I figured out.” Lana smiled down at his now confused face with her hands on her hips.

“And now that I know it works so well, I am going to keep that move in the back of my head for next time.”

Hearing her words come out of her mouth, Zuko felt the worst blush he has ever had pop onto his face.

Even though she was the one to make him blush, Lana realized what she had said and also immediately felt a dark red blush creep up her neck and face.

Trying not to embarrass either of them any further, Lana walked over to Zuko and stuck out her hand. Zuko grabbed her hand and let her pull him up to his feet.

Lana nonchalantly pushed away the awkwardness of it all, and said “Well… Should we head back to the palace for dinner?”

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck and replied, “Uh… Yeah, sure. Yue, your parents and my Uncle are probably looking for us anyways.”

With that, they both ran back to the palace, still with dark blushes as they both tried to pretend the red coloring on their faces were from how cold it was outside, instead of actually from each other.

Later that night, Lana and Yue were in their bedroom after everyone had gone to sleep. Lana had just asked her twin if Yue wanted to join her and Zuko on the rooftop.

Without Lana noticing, Yue gave her twin a knowing smile and said, “Why don’t you and Zuko go up to the rooftop without me this time?”

Not thinking anything of it, Lana smiled back at Yue as she grabbed her parka and gloves. Once she put on her boots, Lana whispered to Yue, “Okay, I will be back whenever we are done.”

Lana quietly closed their bedroom door and immediately started to sneak down the bedroom corridor to Zuko’s guestroom.

Zuko had already known that Lana was going to ask him to go to the rooftop, so as he was getting his shoes on, he heard the door creak open and turned around to see Lana standing in the doorway.

Lana and Zuko shared a smirk as they both started their mission to get up to the palace rooftop.

Over the years, Lana and Zuko had become experts at scaling the palace walls. After so many nighttime adventures together every time he visited, they both were able to climb up and down faster than the last time.

After they had reached the top, Zuko looked out over the view. No matter how many times he saw it, its beauty was still going to surprise him.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Lana sit down. As he walked over to her, he checked his pocket to make sure he didn’t drop anything on his climb up the walls.

After a few minutes of just enjoying each other’s company, Zuko decided to finally speak.

“Hey Lana, I’m sorry I am going to miss your birthday.”

Hearing this, Lana tilted her head at him and giggled. “It’s okay, you are never here for my birthday.”

“Yeah… I know, but this year, I… actually got you something.”

Lana sat there confused since he had never brought her anything to celebrate her birthday before.

She turned to look at him with a thoughtful smile. “Zuko, you didn’t have to get me anything. Just being able to see you is more than enough.”

Trying to keep his blushing to a minimum after the incident earlier, Zuko trembled as he dug into his pocket. He pulled out a necklace and gave it to Lana. “Well, either way, happy early birthday!”

Stunned to see him hand her something, Lana put it in the palm of her hand to get a better look at it.

She looked closer to see it was a golden necklace with a circle pendant that had a sun and moon carved into the metal.

As he watched her look at it, he started to get nervous and thought she didn’t like it. “If you don’t like it, I understand… I mean I asked my uncle to help me get it from the shop, so I get if you don’t-”

“Zuko, I absolutely love it!” Lana yelled as she pulled him into a hug.

“Re-really? You actually like it?” Zuko questioned her.

Lana started to laugh. “Yeah, I love it so much! No one has ever given me a gift like this before. This is the absolute best birthday gift ever!” Lana placed her head on his shoulder as she kept looking at her new gift.

“Oh…” Zuko felt his body tense, then slowly relaxed as he smiled and looked down at her as she was admiring his gift. “Well… I am glad you like it.”

“Of course, I do… Would you actually help me put it on?”

“Uh, yeah, of course.” Zuko awkwardly said as Lana was already turning around to move her hair out of the way, so that he could easily put the necklace on her.

As he tried not to shake out of being so nervous, Zuko quickly clasped the necklace into place.

Lana turned around to show him what it looked like on her as she glanced down to see how perfect it was.

Seeing Lana with his gift around her neck made him turn bright red.

Looking back at Zuko, she gave him a grin from ear to ear. “Thank you, Zuko. I’m never going to take it off.”

As he heard her words, Zuko swelled with happiness. “You promise?”

Lana stared back into his golden bronze eyes as she said, “I promise.”

~End of Flashback~

Lana was so lost in thought, that she didn’t even hear Yue yelling her name as she came down the palace stairs.

Yue had to practically shake Lana to make her come out of her trance.

Finally looking around, Lana took a step back and focused on her twin, when she noticed that it was now actually nighttime.

“Wait, what?” Lana asked Yue. “What’s going on? When in the spirits did it become so late? Did I somehow miss Zuko and Iroh get here?!”

Yue clearly noticed Lana’s state of panic as her twin continued to ask her questions.

As Yue gripped Lana’s shoulders, she gently said, “Lana, Lana… it’s okay. We’re not really sure what happened, but Zuko and Iroh never showed up.”

As she saw Lana’s face turn into a look of fear, Yue wanted to calm her twin down as fast as she could.

“Maybe, something came up in the Fire Nation! Who knows, they could just be late, and they will arrive tomorrow morning. Everything is going to be fine.”

As Yue started to drag her twin up the palace stairs, Lana clenched onto her golden necklace as she glanced up to the highest frozen wall with a worried look.

She couldn’t stop herself from worrying about where Zuko and Iroh could be.

-The Same Day in the Fire Nation-

When Zuko was all ready to go earlier that day, he was about to leave the palace to find his uncle when the guards in front of the palace gates simply told him that the plans to go to the Northern Water Tribe had changed.

Trying to find his father and uncle, Zuko searched everywhere in the palace.

Walking towards the war room, Zuko saw two guards standing out, signifying there was currently a war meeting happening.

Looking up at the guards, Zuko asked, “Where are my father and uncle?”

One of the guards replied, “Prince Zuko, they are currently in a war meeting. Firelord Ozai informed us he is not to be disturbed.”

Zuko instantly became infuriated.

He had been looking forward to seeing Lana and Yue, even their whole family and tribe, ever since he left them six months ago. As his blood began to boil, Zuko tried to step through the doors until the two guards crossed their spears, blocking the door.

Shocked the guards would do such a thing to their Crown Prince, Zuko took a step back and gasped.

The same guard that just told him ‘Firelord Ozai informed us he is not to be disturbed’, just looked down at him and repeated the same exact statement to the Prince.

Out of fear he would get himself in trouble with his father, Zuko turned around and ran away back to his room.

With one last glance at the guards protecting the war room, Zuko had no idea what they could be possibly talking about in there.

Later that night, Zuko was laying in his bed as he looked out his window at the moon, upset and confused as to why they didn’t leave for the Northern Water Tribe earlier that day.

Suddenly, his bedroom door slammed open. Ripping Zuko out of his thoughts, he sat up with a shocked look to see Azula smugly leaning against his door frame with her arms crossed, staring at him.

“Dad’s breaking the treaty!” Azula mockingly started to sing.

Attempting to stay calm, Zuko tried not to give her the satisfaction of letting her see him upset as he said, “Nice try, Azula, I’m not falling for one of your lies again.”

Skipping over to Zuko, Azula nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders as she jumped onto his bed. “Okay, don’t believe me. But I was just in the war room without anyone seeing me, I heard all of their plans.”

As she hopped back onto the ground, she continued her little malicious speech.

“Dad said that the Water Nation have been taking advantage of our kindness enough over the last few years, and it’s time to show them our power.”

A state of panic and fear rushed through Zuko after hearing what Azula said.

Now glaring at her, Zuko gripped his bedsheets, trying his hardest not to set his whole room on fire.

As he quickly became angry that Azula would even try to convince him of this, Zuko shouted, “You’re a liar!”

As she was watching Zuko get so upset, Azula felt a smug smile grow on her lips as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Listen, Zuzu, I am just telling you for your own good, so you can stop pretending to actually like going to the Northern Water Tribe and being friends with those Water Princesses. I know! Maybe you could get some real friends, from your own nation!”

Bolting out of his bed, Zuko clenched his fists by his sides as he had to physically hold himself back from Azula. “Stop it, Azula! You’re lying. Father would never break the treaty agreement!”

Azula walked around Zuko towards his door.

As she barely looked over at her brother for one last glare, Azula shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Whatever you want to believe, Zuzu!” Leaving him behind to think it over, Azula shut the door behind her.

Zuko was fuming and shaking in fear as he clenched his eyes shut and thought about what Azula just told him.

‘ _Was it true? Would father actually ever break a treaty with the Water Nation?! Would he never let me go back to the Northern Water Tribe? If Azula is telling the truth, will I never be able to see Lana again?_ ’

Shaking himself out of all of these horrible thoughts racing through his mind, Zuko jumped back into his bed as he angrily grit his teeth.

Trying to forget what Azula just told him, Zuko started to repeat his usual mantra over and over again whenever Azula attempted to get him upset.

“Azula always lies… Azula always lies… Azula always lies.”

This was the first time Azula didn’t lie.

Despite Iroh’s pleas to not end the treaty with the Water Nation, Firelord Ozai wouldn’t have it.

Unknowingly to Prince Zuko and both Water Tribes, Fire Nation ships were heading to the Southern Water Tribe for the last Southern Waterbender.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******cue internal screaming****** 
> 
> Thanks for reading and leaving kudos! This one made me smile and want to cry, lmao.


	12. Learning What Betrayal Means

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Northern Water Tribe finds out the Fire Nation broke their Treaty Agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of violence/murder
> 
> Yue, Lana and Zuko: Age - 10

It had been days.

Days since no one in the Northern Water Tribe knew where Prince Zuko, General Iroh, or the other delegates were.

Chief Arnook sent out a few of his men waterbenders around the North Pole to check for any nearby shipwrecks, yet the guards came back with nothing to report.

Without any word as to where the Fire Nation ship could be, Lana and her family were growing more and more worried as the minutes passed.

As they tried to figure out where else the tribe could look for the Fire Nation men and the young Prince, the royal family sat around a table in the palace ballroom.

While their mother and father were looking at a map and searching for areas to scout out, Yue wrapped her arms around Lana to comfort her twin.

Yue leaned in closer to Lana’s ear and whispered, “Don’t worry, Lana. Zuko would swim from the Fire Nation just to get here if he had to.”

Glancing at her sister, Lana nodded her head and looked back up to watch her parents work out their next move.

Out of nowhere, the ballroom doors were slammed open. The whole family was startled and their heads snapped towards the noise.

Straight away, one of Arnook’s guards came rushing across the room.  
With a scroll in his hand, the guard urgently said, “Chief, you are going to want to read this.”

Chief Arnook hastily grabbed the scroll from the man’s hand.

As he looked down, Arnook saw that the rolled scroll had a Water Tribe symbol on it, marking it as written correspondence with the Southern Water Tribe.

He quickly ripped open the scroll and started to read.

“It… It can’t be.” Arnook disbelievingly whispered as he held his head in shame with his free hand.

Soma and the girls started to anxiously watch Arnook as he sat there reading the scroll over and over again.

Arnook glanced from the scroll to his guard and asked, “Is this true? How do you know this scroll is true?”

The guard gloomily started to nod his head. “It came right from our sister tribe, Chief. The scroll is directly written by the South’s best warrior, Hakoda.”

As he heard these words, Arnook knew it had to be correct. From all of his immediate guilt, he hung his head and dismissed his guard.

Now it was just Soma, Yue and Lana staring at Arnook with wide eyes, not knowing what to do or say.

Trying to be as strong as possible for her family, Soma knew she had to be the one to ask her husband what was going on as she gently pushed out her chair.

Walking up behind Arnook, she placed her hand on his shoulder and asked, “Love, what happened in our sister tribe? What are you not telling us?”

Arnook looked up at his wife then to his twin daughters. Not only did he feel completely ignorant for trusting the Fire Nation during their Treaty, he felt shameful that he let his daughters befriend and get so close to the Firelord’s son.

As Arnook opened up his mouth to tell his family what happened, no words came out. He felt like a lump was sitting on the back of his throat.

Since he was so lost for words, Arnook just decided to hand Soma the scroll.

Soma quickly started to read, and the twins watched their mother gasp in shock of what the scroll contained. She had to sit down next to Arnook as she felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach.

She felt herself start to panic as she shakily placed the scroll on the table. “When did this happen, Arnook?”

Her husband slowly looked up at her with watery eyes. “The day the Fire Nation was meant to arrive.”

Soma’s lips started to tremble as she stared at Arnook with wide eyes.

Suddenly, the girls watched their mother throw her elbows onto the table and cover her eyes with her hands, trying to hide her anger and sorrow.

As Lana and Yue sat there, the twins glanced from each other back to their parents. Neither of the twins had ever seen their mother or father like this before.

Yue and Lana both instantly bolted out of their chairs and jumped to hug their parents out of fear and confusion.

At the same time, Yue and Lana quietly asked, “What happened?”

Soma wiped her tears as she looked at Arnook. As soon as their eyes met, Soma nodded her head as if to give her husband permission to tell their twins what happened.

They both knew that the truth had to come out sooner or later.

As he nervously looked at his daughters, Arnook took a deep breath and tried to find the strength to speak.

He slowly started to explain. “Lana and Yue… There has been an attack on our sister tribe in the South.”

Attempting to help Arnook with this hardship and with finding the right words, Soma added, “The Fire Nation took the life of a Southern Water Tribe woman a few days ago.”

“What?” Yue said as she quickly placed her hand over her mouth and was appalled that the Fire Nation would ever do something like that.

Lana winced and cried out, “Why would they do that?! What happened?”

Taking one last look at Soma, Arnook lowered his eyes down at the table before he had to say the last thing he ever expected to say.

“The Fire Nation was searching for the last waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe.”

Lana shakily whispered, “Wait… What do you mean?”

As the realization set in, Lana felt like the whole room was spinning.

She didn’t want to believe her father’s word. “No, no, no… The Fire Nation would never do that. Iroh is a General, Zuko is the Prince! Neither of them would do that!”

Trying to be patient with his daughter, Arnook stood out of his chair and knelt beside her.

As he settled his hands on her shoulders, Arnook softly tried to explain to his ten year old a concept she was so privileged to never experience until now.

He needed to explain to Lana the concept of war.

“Lana, the Fire Nation went down to the South for bloodshed. The Southern warriors battled the Fire Nation soldiers as best as they could, but… the Fire Nation attempted to finish what they went there to do. The Southern Water Tribe scroll says they didn’t succeed in killing the last waterbender, but the Fire Nation murdered a non-bender.”

Staring into her father’s eyes, she couldn’t make sense of what he was telling her.

“NO!” Lana yelled as tears streamed down her face. “I don’t believe you! Why would they want to search for their last waterbender? Why would they want to take away someone’s life?”

“Lana, please listen to me.” Arnook said as he wiped her tears. “We don’t understand why the Fire Nation would do such a terrible act to someone in the Water Nation, but… they betrayed our trust, and the Fire Nation wanted the Water Tribes to suffer the consequences.”

Still in shock, Yue quietly whispered to her parents, “But why did they betray our Treaty?”

“Because, we should’ve never trusted them in the first place.” Soma sadly answered as Yue crawled into her lap.

Arnook then stood up and explained, “I now realize how naive I was to think I could protect both of our tribes through this treaty. The Fire Nation was and will always be our enemy.”

Still in disbelief, Lana shakily muttered, “But… But, is Zuko still our friend?”

As he looked down at his daughter, Arnook knew he had to be as direct as possible for her to understand.

“No. Zuko is the Fire Nation’s Crown Prince and the Firelord’s son… He will always be your enemy.”

Lana started shaking her head as she still couldn’t fully process what her father was saying. She started to look around the room, and her eyes landed on her mother.

Lana watched her mother hold Yue close to her chest as Soma gave her a sympathetic, sad frown.

As Lana and Soma’s eyes met, Soma painfully said, “Your father is right, Lana. The Fire Nation has betrayed us, and they will never again be welcomed back here.”

“So… So, I will never be able to see Zuko, again?” Lana glanced at Yue and felt nauseous as the words came out of her mouth.

Arnook and Soma shared a regretful glance, but they both looked at their daughter and simply said, “No.”

Lana clutched her stomach thinking she was going to get sick right then and there.

Seeing his daughter like this, Arnook wanted to cradle her in his arms and hide the violent world away from her forever.

As he tried to grab her and pull her in for a hug, Lana started backing away from her family with wide eyes. She needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

“Lana, wait!” Arnook yelled as he watched Lana pivot and sprint out of the ballroom, leaving the palace doors wide open.

The guards on the other side of the doorway looked back at their Chief and asked if they should follow her.

Looking to his wife for an answer, Soma shook her head and said, “No, she needs to realize what all of this means for her and for our Nation. Let her go, she’ll come back.”

As Soma started running her fingers through Yue’s hair, Yue couldn’t help but bawl her eyes out into her mother’s chest.

Soma also felt tears flowing down her cheeks. Yue heard her mother quietly whisper, “Lana always comes back.”

Without turning around once to look at the palace, Lana stopped her crying, held back her tears and fled.

She had to get herself to her safe haven as quickly as possible.

Lana didn’t know where else to turn to when she felt like her whole world was just ignited into flames.

As soon as she got to her abandoned area, Lana started replaying the conversation over and over again in her mind.

‘ _Never should’ve trusted them.’_

_‘Fire Nation is our enemy.’_

_‘Will never be able to see Zuko again.’_

_‘The Fire Nation has betrayed us_.’

‘They will never again be _welcomed back here.’_

 _‘He will always be your enemy_.’

As all of the thoughts kept piling up in her mind, she couldn’t make them stop.

Lana clenched onto her head with both of hands, as she felt like her head was going to explode.

The horrible replay of their conversation kept going, it was making her head heavy and confused.

Lana winced as she couldn’t make it stop as she remembered more and more each time it played in her mind. It just became too much.

Thinking of Zuko as some kind of evil criminal just made her head throb.

Out of all of her sadness, she thought of how that waterbender the Fire Nation was searching for could’ve been her. She was confused and infuriated that Zuko’s own nation could think they could just give and take away life like they were the spirits themselves.

From all of her confusion and agony, she collapsed to the ground on her knees with a cry, still holding onto her head with both of her hands as she kept thinking about it all.

Unknowingly to Lana, some of the ground that surrounded her shattered as if it was glass.

Lana’s thoughts soon drifted her down a dreadful path.

‘Did he even see me as a best friend? Did the past couple of years mean nothing to him? What if he had no idea that his father was planning this? If Zuko didn’t know, did Iroh know? What if I was just a part of the overall plan?’

While clenching her eyes as tight as she could, she suddenly realized what exactly she was feeling.

Betrayed.

As soon as she registered this feeling, she understood what her father and mother were trying to tell her.

Suddenly, Lana screamed and threw her hands at her sides.

This time, the frozen ground reacted more and more as every single inch of her arena started to crack and break from the raw emotion she was projecting at her natural element.

Looking around to see what she just did, Lana had the urge to waterbend until she couldn’t do anything else.

With tears streaming down her face, she angrily shot up from the ground and started her onslaught.

As she stood in the middle of the abandoned area, she slowly lifted her arms from her sides with her palms turned upwards. Gradually, the top layer of the snowy ground started to follow her command and floated around her body.

As she felt a surge of energy rush into her body, Lana transformed the cracked ice and snow into water.

She started to stream the water by swirling her arms. Soon, the water was an infinite circle surrounding her.

Lana punched parts of the water circle with clenched fists.

The water changed phases from liquid to solid, mini ice spears that launched into the deserted building in the back of her arena.

Punch after punch, she felt her body growing in power. She didn’t know if this feeling was real, or just from the utter heartbreak of not being able to see Zuko again.

As she continued her ice attack on the building, Lana didn’t hear footsteps crunching in the snow behind her from all of the ringing inside of her head.

Yue tried to get her attention as she got closer and closer to her twin, but it wasn’t working.

Thinking as fast as she could, Yue slipped under Lana’s floating infinite water circle and wrapped her arms around Lana’s body.

Instantly, Lana felt her sister’s arms and dropped the water that was encircling both her and her twin.

All at once, Lana collapsed into Yue’s arms as they both fell to the ground.

Looking up to Yue, Lana had no words. She just stared up at her as she clutched onto Yue’s arms out of breath.

Yue softly whispered, “Lana… it’s going to be okay.”

As she considered what Yue said, Lana glanced around the area to see the mess she just made.

Slowly looking back into Yue’s eyes, Lana whispered, “Is it though?”

They shared a few more seconds of silence as they both thought of what the other said. Suddenly, they both started to cry.

Their bodies were intertwined around the other, hugging and holding onto each other as if it was the last thing in their powers they could do.

Finally, Lana and Yue returned to the palace and dragged themselves up to their bedroom.

As they got themselves ready for bed, Lana looked into her mirror on her dresser and gasped when she saw the golden necklace Zuko gave her not too long ago.

Lana tilted her head down as she reached up with one hand and held onto the necklace for dear life.

Debating whether or not to take off Zuko’s gift, she had an internal battle with herself. Lana’s mind went back to the moment she promised Zuko she would never take it off.

Although she promised herself she wouldn’t cry about it any longer, one single tear fell down her cheek as she smiled at the memory.

Lana put her hand back by her side. She then swore to herself that maybe one day, she would have the strength to unclasp the necklace, even if that day was not exactly that night.

Sooner or later, the golden necklace would have to be taken off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a little taste of betrayal and angst that we’re going to get into 😅
> 
> Next chapter will include a 3 year time skip for Lana and Yue in the NWT!


	13. Growing Up Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the twins continue to grow up, Lana and Yue go about their usual days ever since the Fire Nation’s betrayal. Set three years after the Fire Nation ended the Fire and Water Nation Treaty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yue, Lana and Zuko: 13

One winter morning, the twins were running late for Lana’s healing lessons and for Yue to meet their mother down by the water canal. 

Yue was just about ready to go when she walked back into their bedroom and saw Lana dressed, yet fast asleep on her bed. 

Almost ready to pull her hair out, Yue facepalmed her forehead and was utterly annoyed that after so many years, Lana still had not gotten around to being a morning person. 

Instead of yelling, Yue took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She patiently walked over to Lana and pulled one of her pillows out from under her head. 

Still, Lana was out like a light. 

Slowly but surely becoming more and more irritated at their usual morning ritual, Yue thought of another idea. She quickly walked over to their bedroom balcony and placed her hands on the door handles. 

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she could watch Lana’s reaction, Yue steadily started to pull the handles down. All at once, she ripped the doors open and stepped a few feet away from the balcony so that the cold winter breeze could run through their room to effectively make Lana get up and out of bed. 

Even in her deep sleep, Lana felt the chill rush over her body and immediately whelped and death-gripped the blankets underneath her. 

As she scrambled to somehow get underneath her blankets, Lana screamed, “Yue, no! Stop! It’s freezing!”

Yue tossed her head back and laughed at seeing her twin all over the bed, begging for her to stop. 

She knew it was somewhat ruthless, but after everything Lana has put her through over the years, Yue felt as though she deserved to prank her sister a bit. 

As Yue kept laughing, Lana looked to the water cup beside her bed and felt a smirk grow onto her lips. 

Slowly getting up to her knees, Lana picked up the water with her hand facing up, held onto it and sent two water whips to shut both of the balcony doors. 

Even though she was impressed at how successful Lana was at closing the doors without even getting out of her bed, Yue turned around with her hands on her hips and shook her head at her sister.  
“Sorry Lana, but you know I wouldn’t have had to do this if you could actually just be on time for once.” 

“Well, Yue, you would think after so many years we have shared a room, you would’ve just gotten used to it by now.” Lana sat back down in her bed and playfully glared at her twin, while Yue just rolled her eyes at how dramatic Lana could be. 

Yue decided to tease her more as she muttered under her breath, “Spirits, waterbenders can get so moody once the sun comes out.” 

As Lana heard this whispered from across the room, she bolted out of her bed and threw one of her pillows at her. 

Yue caught it in mid-air, and the girls stared each other down.

After a couple of seconds of silence, neither of them could stop themselves from giggling at how crazy Lana looked with her bed head and all. 

“Okay, okay… I’ll get ready, just give me a second.” Lana mumbled. 

Dragging herself over to her dresser, Lana tossed her parka over her head and pulled on her boots. 

“There! You happy?” Lana said with a smug smile. 

As she checked Lana over to make sure she was somewhat presentable for her lessons, Yue moved to fix Lana’s hair. 

“Oh so happy, you are actually ready!” Yue shot Lana a mocking grin right back at her. 

Finally, they were on their way out of the palace as Lana hooked her arm around Yue’s to head towards their Nana’s healing hut. 

As soon as she saw her twin granddaughters walking towards her arm in arm, Yagoda smiled at the girls. “Oh, hello my little water lilies!” 

Leaning down to hug them, Yagoda couldn’t help but swell with pride at how much they have grown into such beautiful, young teenagers. 

“You two better stop growing!” Yagoda stood back up and looked them both over. “You both are going to be towering over me soon.”

Both Yue and Lana giggled at their grandmother. Lana then shot Yue a look that basically said ‘get ready to keep on hearing that usual grandmother speech’ since all three of them knew they had a lot more growing up to do. 

“It’s so good to see you, Nana!” The twins said at the exact same time as they both grabbed Yagoda’s hands.

“It’s great to see you two as always.” Yagoda turned towards her oldest granddaughter and asked, “Yue, are you staying with us during today’s lesson?” 

“No, Nana, I am going for a canoe ride with Mom. Hopefully, she hasn’t been waiting for me too long… since someone couldn’t get out of her bed this morning.” Yue side-eyed Lana as she realized she just snitched on her.

Glaring at her sister, Lana noticed Yagoda shift towards her and at the last second, Lana instantly gave her Nana a sheepish shrug and smile. 

Yagoda started to cross her arms as she replied, “Well, Yue, I see some things never change.” 

Yagoda turned back towards Yue to keep talking, while Lana moved to stand behind their grandmother as she took one of her index fingers and slid it across her own throat, showing Yue that she was going to have to get her back for ratting her out. 

Right after Yue’s eyes widened at Lana’s gesture, she quickly covered her mouth to hold back her laughter from seeing Lana fool around right behind Nana's back. 

Yagoda figured Yue was laughing at her sister, so she quickly turned around to see if she could catch her granddaughter, yet all she saw was Lana with her hands behind her back, whistling. 

After shaking her head at her, Yagoda hesitantly turned back to say goodbye to Yue. 

“Alright, Yue, have fun with your mother. We have to get our lesson started if Lana here is going to be the best healer we have in the city.” Their Nana then moved to look at Lana and gave her a proud smile as she continued to brag. “I think she will be a healing master much sooner than I first predicted.” 

As they heard the news, the girls shot each other excited smiles as Yue waved goodbye and went on her way.

Turning back to her other granddaughter, Yagoda smiled down to Lana as she guided her into the healing hut and asked, “Shall we begin?”

After Yagoda finally dismissed her from the healing lesson, Lana ran to the water canal where the twins always met to walk around the city. 

The girls were exploring and chatting about what Yue saw during her ride, and what Lana learned from Yagoda during her lesson when something caught Lana’s eyes. 

Grabbing Yue’s hand to stop her from walking, Lana pointed towards the open arena that was used for warrior waterbending training. 

As she moved closer to see what Lana was pointing at, Yue saw a class being taught by Master Pakku. 

Yue immediately whipped her head back around to start frantically shaking her head, but Lana was already giving her a mischief grin as she raised one of her eyebrows. 

Just as Yue was going to tell her absolutely not, Lana placed a finger over her mouth and said, “C’mon Yue, this is for tattle tailing on me in front of Nana.”

Yue rolled her eyes at her as she pushed Lana’s fingers off of her face. “I should’ve known that was going to come back to bite me.”

With that, Lana grabbed Yue’s hand and dragged her over to a secret hideout on the outskirts of the arena to spy on Master Pakku’s class. 

As they both watched the training, Lana furrowed her eyebrows and was totally confused at what she saw.

She moved a bit closer to Yue and whispered, “Those moves are waterbending stances I mastered years ago. I mean look at them! You would think that these boys would take their training way more seriously.”

Trying not to roll her eyes at Lana, Yue teasingly whispered back, “If only you took our actual lessons that seriously. We can’t all be waterbending prodigies.”

Lana quietly gasped and gently slapped Yue on her shoulder.

“You know that’s not what I’m saying!” Lana looked back towards the class and felt a grin creep onto her face. “I mean Nana did just tell us that I will be a master healer in no time, I feel the same goes for my martial waterbending training. I just… I shouldn’t be forbidden from taking his lessons if I am just as good, if not better, than these boys.”

“Well… if it was up to me, you would already be masters in both.” Yue smirked at her sister, trying to make her feel a bit better about the whole situation.

After all of the years Yue had been so supportive of her dreams, hearing this made Lana gratefully smile at her twin. Lana turned to Yue with so much love and appreciation and said, “Thank you, Yue.” 

Suddenly, the girls heard people walking by their hide-out and knew it was time they got out of there as quickly as possible. 

Later on that night, the twins said goodnight to their parents and pretended they went to bed. 

As soon as they saw that the moon was high up in the sky from their balcony, Lana and Yue prepared to go off on their nighttime adventure like they always did when they were kids. 

In the last three years, Yue started to venture up to the rooftop with Lana every single night, instead of keeping watch for anyone coming by to catch them.

Even though Lana never liked to talk about it, Yue figured out what Lana was always thinking about when she went up to the rooftop alone. 

Yue knew from the way Lana’s eyes shined in the moonlight each time she would come back down the palace walls from her climb. Her eyes could always tell Yue what she was thinking, and it absolutely made Yue’s heart tighten in her chest.

Lana always thought about Zuko up there. 

After so many of Zuko and Lana’s adventures up to the rooftop, it slowly started to change from Lana’s favorite place in the city to Zuko and Lana’s favorite spot to be together. 

Now that Yue and Lana would go up there together, the rooftop became more of their twin time. Even if Lana never asked her to, Yue knew in her heart she would distract Lana from her pain forever if she had to. 

As soon as they climbed up that night, Yue asked Lana to show her the waterbending moves she had taught herself since the last time Yue got to see her progress. 

Lana jumped at the idea and rubbed her hands together in excitement. 

“Wait a second, why don’t you try the forms with me, Yue? That could be fun!”

Yue started to laugh at her sister. “I mean I could… But wouldn’t that be kind of silly? I wouldn’t be able to waterbend like you.”

“True, but just because you can’t bend, doesn’t mean that you can’t learn new things from practicing the stances.” Lana was bursting at the seams with how thrilled she was to teach Yue what she knew. “Plus, I learned that these forms are centuries years old from one of the scrolls I read, so it would be like learning more about our culture.”

“Wow that is pretty amazing… It’s also pretty amazing you started to like history.” Yue teased her sister as she nudged Lana’s side. 

Lana rolled her eyes. “Ha, Ha, Yue.” 

After showing Yue several of the forms she had mastered over the years, the girls were both exhausted as they rested their bodies on the rooftop. 

Out of breath, Yue slowly started to say, “I can’t believe how great you have gotten! It’s so crazy to think that you have basically mastered more than half of the archive scrolls.”

As she sat up to give Yue a smile, Lana replied, “You know, I just need to get my hands on a few of those other scrolls I’ve been eyeing for a while. I want to try and master every single one of the scrolls in that library as soon as possible.” 

Yue swelled with happiness at seeing Lana so happy from her training. “Well, if anyone can do it, it’s you, Lana. Just gotta keep yourself from not getting distracted.”

Lana chuckled as she thought of their actual lessons in the palace. “The only thing that makes me distracted is when our teacher still yells at me to pay attention. I honestly can’t believe she hasn’t caught on yet.”

At that, Yue threw her head back and let out a loud laugh. “That’s because I’m there to make sure you don’t get caught! You are way too crazy and confident for your own good.” 

As Lana heard this, Lana giggled because she knew it was true. “Well, like they say, one of the twins has to be the sane one, while the other is-” Lana twirled one of her index fingers around her temple, crossed her eyes while she stuck out her tongue. 

Yue couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous Lana looked. “Oh spirits, stop it before your eyes get stuck like that.”

Lana nudged her twin’s side. “Who are you, Nana?” 

Yue playfully glared at Lana. “Hey, she’s the one that told you if you keep doing that, she’s not going to heal you.” 

“Yue. At this point, I hope to the spirits that I can fix my eyes on my own. I lost track of how many healing sessions I’ve been to at this point.”

Yue let out a quiet giggle at Lana’s silliness. “I bet… it’s crazy that Nana predicts you’ll be the best healer sooner than she thought you would’ve, right?”

“Yeah… I guess so. It helps whenever you decide to clumsily fall down.” Lana smirked at Yue.

Yue gasped and shoved her twin’s shoulder. “Well, maybe that’s because you still chase me around!”

At that moment, Lana looked out over the view and immediately was reminded of the countless games of tag she and Zuko used to play. 

As Yue looked over at Lana’s face, she instantly knew what Lana was thinking about. 

Zuko.

Yue quietly started to ask, “You know it’s alright to talk about him, right?”

After a couple of seconds of silence, Lana pretended to play dumb and asked, “Who are you talking about?” 

“Oh spirits, Lana, I’m not going to even bother with that question. You know who.”

Lana sheepishly looked away. “Yeah, I know, I know. I just can’t believe how silly I was. How all of us were.”

Yue gave Lana a confused look as she completely disagreed. “It wasn’t silly, I was friends with him too, ya know. Every time we spent time with him, I knew it was genuine.”

Lana glanced from the view to Yue. “You really think so?” 

After she thought about Lana’s question, Yue started to nod. “Yeah I do. And the way he talked about you when you weren’t around, it was honestly the way best friends talk about each other.”

As she heard these words come out of Yue’s mouth, Lana felt a blush color her cheeks.

“But also Lana… I could see he was practically boy crazy for you.” 

At this, Lana practically choked on her own saliva. “Yue! No.. No, it wasn’t like that.”

“Oh! So you’re saying you never once had a small, baby crush on him? You never had a moment together that you thought you liked… liked him?” Yue teased Lana as she wiggled her eyebrows at her. 

Instantly, Lana’s mind ran through all of Zuko and her memories together as kids. 

From the times she caught him flustered, to the times he got her to blush, to how she kissed his cheek to get out of his bear hug, to the time he gave her the golden necklace… 

Lana was ripped out of her thoughts as she heard Yue start to softly giggle next to her. Whipping her head around to gawk at her sister, Lana saw that Yue was giving her a knowing smile and continued to quirk her eyebrows at her.

Lana immediately felt way too embarrassed about… Well, everything. “Oh knock it off! We were just best friends.”

Yue held you her hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay!”

After a little bit of enjoying the view together, Yue asked, “Do you still wear it?”

As if Lana didn’t understand what Yue was asking her yet again, she quietly asked, “Do I still wear what?”

Yue rolled her eyes at her sister’s question. “Would you quit playing this question game? You know what I’m asking you.”

“And you know what the answer is, Yue.” 

After a minute of silence, Lana turned to face Yue as she pulled down her parka to show her that she was, in fact, still wearing Zuko’s gift to her.

As Yue glanced from the golden necklace to Lana, she gave her twin a sad smile. “It really is beautiful.” 

“I just…” Lana took a second to clench her eyes shut. “I just don’t have the heart to take it off yet. It’s like it’s a part of me now.”

Yue started to nod her head. “No one said you have to take it off.” 

Lana turned back towards the view as she played with the charm in between her fingers. “It doesn’t even matter anymore, it’s been too long. He’s probably forgotten all about us.”

Yue looked at her twin as she gave her another sad smile. “Lana… Zuko could never forget about us. Not even after a hundred years.” 

“Yeah, well you never know. I’m sure he made just as good friends back in his own nation.” Lana looked away before Yue could see the tears in her eyes. 

“Whether he did make new friends or not, Lana… I just don’t want you to ever feel like it’s a bad thing to talk about him or the fact that he isn’t around anymore. It’s okay to talk about our memories and people we miss.”

Lana turned back around and smiled at her sister. As she moved over to get right next to her, Lana pulled Yue in for a hug. 

After spending some time together enjoying their view after their heart to heart, Yue was growing more and more tired.

Yue slowly got up as she teased her sister just one more time. “Alright, I’m going to start to head down before you meet me at the bottom. We can’t all be amazing and use our waterbending to help us get down faster.”

Lana looked up at her sister standing above her as she shook her head. “With or without bending, you are absolutely amazing, Yue. I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

After hearing everything Lana said, Yue swelled with happiness. She always appreciated how Lana made her feel good about the fact that she was a non- bender, ever since Lana caught her upset about it all those years ago. 

“Thank you, Lana. I don’t know what I would do without you either.”

Yue took one last look at Lana as she bent down to pick up her ice picks and started to climb down the palace walls.

As she went over everything they just talked about, Lana sat there for a little bit longer thinking about all the times she and Zuko spent on the rooftop together. She couldn’t help but miss him so much throughout all of the past few years. 

As she clenched onto her necklace, she also couldn’t stop herself from thinking about where Zuko could be at that exact moment as she stared over their favorite view of the ocean and the moon. 

Unknowingly to Lana, Zuko was on a Fire Nation ship in the middle of nowhere on his quest to find the Avatar in order to regain his honor and his birthright.

As he stood on the deck of the ship, Zuko gazed over the railing to look at the ocean. When he was looking down at Lana’s natural element, he couldn’t imagine what she thought of him now ever since his father ended the Treaty and how much he had changed over the years.

Even though he hated feeling like this, he had to hide how much he missed her in order to focus on getting back to his nation. 

As he glanced up to the moon, Zuko wondered if Lana still went up to her palace rooftop every night, and if he ever came across her mind. 

At that moment, Zuko just wished he could be there with her. 

Even if he knew that was never going to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I humbly offer you this huge amount of fluff and love as we see Yue and Lana grow up together more and more. Especially from last chapter to future chapters, I felt like we needed some fluff before things change up a bit ❤️


	14. Blinded by Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After years of taking healing lessons, Princess Lana takes her final test to become a Master Healer. Right after a Northern Water Tribe celebration, Lana panics when she can't find Yue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yue and Lana: Age - 15.5
> 
> 2.5 years after Chapter 13

After so many years of learning how to heal from her grandmother, Lana was finally on her last test to become a Master Healer. 

As she slowly walked to the outskirts of the enclosed healing circle, Lana couldn’t stop herself from getting nervous to pass her last test. 

Anxiously looking around at all of her family and tribe members staring at her as she prepared to take this last step in the healing hut, Lana felt a small bead of sweat fall down her head to her neck that sent shivers down her spine. 

Finally landing her eyes on her grandmother and Master Pakku on the opposite side of the healing circle, Lana waited for the other healer tribe members to bring out Yagoda’s mannequin to the center of the circle platform. 

As the women placed the life-sized model on the frozen t-shaped pedestal, Yagoda nodded to her granddaughter, signaling Lana to begin. 

After walking a few feet onto the platform, Lana knelt beside the mannequin and took a slow, deep breath. Shaking herself from her nerves, Lana used two of her fingers to trace the energy pathways along the mannequin’s body and tried to find the forged wounded areas created to test her abilities. 

As a few minutes passed, she realized there was an issue in the internal chest structure of the mannequin. Acting as fast as she could to speed through her exam, she picked up some water from the frozen circle and waterbended herself a healing glove. 

As she placed her hand down, Lana redirected the pathways with her waterbending to heal the fake wound. Once she sensed the healing test was complete, Lana put the water back down in the pool of water and glanced up to look at her grandmother.

The whole room was so quiet that Lana could’ve sworn she could hear the ice melting outside of the hut. 

Master Pakku decided it was his place to break the silence as he asked, “Well, Master Healer Yagoda, has Princess Lana passed her final healing test?”

Glancing from Pakku to Lana, Yagoda couldn’t stop the prideful smile that grew onto her face as she declared, “Princess Lana is now a Master Healer.”

With that final judgement, the tribe members in the room cheered and clapped for their new Master Healer in the city. 

Out of all of her happiness and excitement, Lana stood up as a scarlet red blush grew onto her face as she looked around to everyone so proud of her healing skills. 

She bowed to her grandmother and Master Pakku, then immediately ran over to give her mother, father and twin a group hug. 

“I knew you could do it, Lana!” Soma cheered as she was so excited for her youngest twin. 

Arnook placed his hand on one of Lana’s shoulders and said, “For all of your determination to become a healing Master, we have a celebration prepared to honor your new title.” 

Lana couldn’t stop smiling at her parents as she felt so happy to know what this meant for her. Glancing to Yue, her enthusiasm contorted to a sad smile as another realization set in.

Yue grabbed her hand and shot a knowing smile as she read Lana’s mind. They both knew Lana just couldn’t stop herself from wishing she could be recognized for how talented she was at her martial waterbending too.

As the crowds of tribe members gathered inside of the ballroom, Arnook sat with Yue and Soma at the head table. Standing up to make an announcement, the whole room went silent.

“Today, we celebrate the youngest Master Healer in all of our tribe’s history. By Master Yagoda’s judgment, we celebrate our new Master Healer, Princess Lana!”

Suddenly, the ballroom erupted into loud cheers and hollers as Lana walked into the room. 

As she made her way through the ballroom, Lana noticed all of the tribe members were in awe as they saw that she was wearing a new intricately woven traditional dress to celebrate her ceremony. The other women healers had sown patterns of the ocean around the polar fur with bright blues that stopped at the bottom of a full moon that looked like it was resting on the horizon. 

When Lana first saw it, she almost cried so the reactions she was getting made her feel as confident as she felt. 

As she was about to sit down next to Yue, Lana bowed to her people and felt her cheeks start to hurt from how much she was smiling. 

After a while of listening to the elders share their storytelling, Lana and Yue started to hear the tribal drums starting to play as the crowd of people got up to dance. 

As Lana grabbed Yue’s hand to join their tribe in the ceremonial dance, Master Pakku and their father stopped them. 

Lana watched her father whisper into Yue’s ear and as they both started to walk away, Yue glanced over her shoulder and sent Lana a concerned grin. 

When Lana was about to follow after her father and Yue, Master Pakku stepped in front of her to talk.

“Well, Princess Lana, I guess I was right afterall when I said you would become a powerful healer all of those years ago.”

Lana swallowed her pride and took a deep breath. “Yes, well, I have a lot more determination in my waterbending than you think I do, Master Pakku.”

“Is that so?” Master Pakku replied. “Well, your grandmother seems to think so, so I will not disagree.”

Hearing this, Lana started to get too confident in Pakku. “If you actually think that, then maybe it’s time I start my warrior waterbending training.” 

As she stood there, Lana heard Master Pakku actually start to laugh at her. “Nice try, Princess Lana, but you know our tribe’s customs. Just be happy with your new Master Healer title and be done with this foolish dream of yours.”

Before Lana could even explode at him, Pakku just walked away. At that moment, Lana thought she could have ripped him to shreds. 

Almost at the perfect moment to save Lana from herself, Soma walked over and took her hand to guide her over to the ceremonial dancing floor. 

As Lana let herself be dragged away by her mom, she could only burn a hole in Pakku's back with her eyes as a mischief smile popped up onto her face. If only he knew what she could really do. 

Later on after her celebration ended, Lana walked back through the palace and headed to search for Yue. 

She became more and more worried when Yue was nowhere to be found. As her panic started to increase, Lana began to run to find her twin. Looking in every single room of the palace, she finally went to their shared room and ripped open their door. 

Sprinting through the bedroom, Lana noticed that Yue was curled up in her bed, crying. “Yue!”

As she landed by Yue’s side, Lana screamed, “What’s wrong, Yue?! Tell me what happened.” As Lana yanked Yue to sit up and look at her, she saw Yue’s eyes were puffed and red from how much she was crying. 

Trying to figure out what was wrong, Lana looked down and saw a betrothal necklace around Yue’s neck. 

Gasping for air, Lana didn’t know what to do. “What?! How did this happen?”

Yue could barely bring herself above a low whisper. “During your ceremony, father told me I am engaged and Hahn gave me this betrothal necklace.” 

“He can’t do that! You aren’t even sixteen yet?” Lana shouted at the top of her lungs. 

“He said our wedding ceremony will be right after we turn sixteen… Lana, what is done is done. There’s nothing we can do.”

Something in Lana snapped. “Oh, the spirits themselves won’t be able to hold me back.”

With that, Lana shot up and out of Yue’s bed and bolted out of their room. As Lana sprinted down the bedroom corridor, Yue yelled, “Wait, Lana!”

Lana didn’t care as Yue yelled at her to stop. 

All Lana saw was red as the ringing in her ears made her just about ready to shatter the whole palace with her waterbending. She was absolutely blinded by anger. 

Racing to find her father, Lana saw two guards outside of her father’s meeting room. Halting in her run, she pivoted and made her way to the room that she knew where the Council was. 

Even when the guards were yelling at her to stop, not even a typhoon could hold Lana back from throwing open the doors. 

All of the Council members and her father shot their heads at the noise of the banging doors. Arnook instantly knew what this was about, and tried to reason with her. “Lana, we are in a meeting. You can’t be in he-”

“First, you forbid me from warrior waterbending!” Lana was outraged, practically foaming at the mouth. “But, NOW, you all have the audacity to give away Yue’s hand in marriage during my ceremony! This is uncalled for!”

Arnook’s jaw dropped as he looked at his daughter, shocked to see her so infuriated in front of his Council members. He thought she looked like an untamed hurricane, coming directly at a ship. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Arnook quickly stood out of his chair, and said, “Stop, Lana. You know our traditions, this is the way of our people! I have had just about enough!”

“No, I have had enough!” Lana pointed her finger at her father. “This is just too far! You can’t just give Yue away like that!”

Hearing this, Master Pakku decided to calmly chime in. “As Princess to our tribe, your twin clearly understands her role. You, on the other hand, have a lot to learn.”

“Excuse me?” Lana seethed, as she was about to pounce on the old Master. “Why don’t I show you how much I understa-”

As she was about to lunge at one of his Council members, Arnook jumped at the last second and held Lana back, “Lana, I told you! Enough!”

Stepping away from her father, Lana could practically feel smoke coming out of her ears. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves! Yue is fifteen and a half, she’s not even of marrying age yet. She shouldn’t be concerned about getting married.”

“Don’t worry, Princess Lana, since Princess Yue is the eldest twin, she will get married first.” Master Pakku teased her from across the table as a smirk played on his lips. “You will be next in line.”

Lana’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened at his words, then anger had taken its place. Lana wanted nothing more than to peel that smug smile right off of his face. 

Throwing her arms to her sides, Lana yelled, “Oh, no I won’t! Yue nor I will not let you or anyone in this room decide who and when we will marry.” 

Pointing a finger now at Master Pakku, she hissed, “Yue will not be forced by you to-”

“Lana.”

Out of pure shock, Lana whipped her head towards the doorway to see Yue, calmly standing there with her arms gently placed in front of her. 

Yue walked a few steps into the meeting room and looked over all of the men sitting at the table. Finally, Yue’s eyes stopped at her twin with a sad smile. 

“It is my duty to this tribe to be the first of us married. I have already accepted and still respect the Council and father’s decision.”

“Wha...What?” Lana couldn’t believe Yue’s words. “Bu-But, this isn’t fair, Yue!”

“See, Princess Lana?” Master Pakku gestured to Yue. “Your sister respects our traditions, maybe you should too.”

That was the boiling point for her. 

Just as Lana was about to start to pick up water to attack Master Pakku, Yue ran over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it to make Lana stop before she regretted doing anything else. 

Yue started to drag Lana out of the room while Lana sent one last raging glare at everyone in that meeting room. 

As soon as they got back in their bedroom, Lana started pacing around the room as Yue sat down on her bed. 

Lana couldn’t think straight. 

She couldn’t understand. 

She didn’t want to understand. 

Finally, she looked at her twin and saw how heavy Yue’s eyes were. Lana threw herself to the ground to kneel in front of Yue.

Taking Yue’s hands in her own, Lana took a deep breath and tried to control her temper. 

“Yue… I’m sorry. But I just need to know why you are letting them do this?”

Yue looked down at her sister and saw how desperate Lana was to know her reasoning. As she took one of her hands to rest on Lana’s cheek, Yue whispered, “Lana… If it wasn’t me to be engaged, it would be you.” 

Lana shakily stood up and yelled, “But I don’t want you to do this just to please dad's Council members! You shouldn’t have to be forced to get married!” 

Then, Lana glanced at the ground and quietly whispered, “You should be the one to decide who your soulmate is and when you want to marry them.”

Yue felt tears in her eyes at Lana’s words. “I know, Lana. There is nothing I want more than to find someone who I love and who loves me, but this is what’s meant to be. I love our tribe and that’s enough for me. ”

Hearing this, Lana looked back into Yue’s shiny eyes and couldn’t stop the soreness in the back of her throat from getting more and more painful as she thought about Yue’s commitment to their people.

Even though she could tell Yue was about to cry, Lana watched her twin stand up and smile at her.

“Plus, Lana… I already have my soulmate in this room with me.”

As soon as she heard the words come out of Yue’s mouth, Lana couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. She ran into Yue’s arms, and they both let out all of their anger and sadness. 

After a bit, Lana stood away from their hug and wiped Yue’s tears away. 

“You’re right, we are soulmates.” Lana gave Yue another sad smile. “I just want you to be happy and find someone who makes you feel like the amazing person you are, inside and out.”

“Don’t worry, Lana. I already found that person.” Yue put her hand on her sister’s cheek. “It’s you.”

Lana grabbed Yue and held onto her. They hugged each other for what felt like years as Lana whispered, “You’re my person, too.”

Even though they had physically grown so much over the years, they both crawled into Yue’s bed, wrapped around each other’s arms. 

As Yue started to fall asleep, Lana started running her hands through her hair. “Yue… I love you to the moon and back.”

Half asleep, Yue gave Lana a weak smile and replied, “I love you to the moon and back too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Protective Lana is scary... but she would do anything for Yue! 
> 
> I tried to integrate some of the Inuit traditions that I have recently learned about when I was researching "coming of age" Inuit customs to sort of morph into Lana's new healing status, so please correct me if I am wrong with any of the included traditions. I am happy to remove or add information in to respect and honor Inuit traditions more, as the NWT is inspired by their culture! 
> 
> Next chapter is going to be set 6 months from this chapter and will be published either tomorrow night or Friday! I wonder who could be joining Yue and Lana's story when they turn 16... 😏😏


	15. The Avatar’s Arrival

Even though it had been months since Lana’s outrage over Yue being forced into her engagement, things had still been tense between Arnook and Lana, but there was a bright side that Lana didn’t see coming. 

She didn’t apologize, and surprisingly, her father didn’t make her apologize. 

Lana assumed it was because he knew there wasn’t anything he could say to get her to change her mind…. Or maybe neither one of them wanted to set off the ticking time bomb.

Two weeks ago, Arnook asked Lana to wait after dinner as Soma and Yue left to get ready for bed. 

Lana looked over her shoulder at Yue and sent her a nervous pout, thinking she was going to be reprimanded for her freak out. 

As Yue sensed her anxiety, she gave Lana an encouraging smile hoping to help her calm down. Even if she had no idea what their father was going to say to Lana.

Lana was sitting there, glancing from the table to her father as she prayed to the spirits that if he was going to yell, they might as well get the argument over already. 

Suddenly, Arnook stood up and sat right next to her. 

Instead of yelling, he calmly said, “Listen… I know things have been… stressful, but I have something to ask you to help our tribe with.”

Lana furrowed her eyebrows. “Wait… Really?” 

Arnook replied, “Yes, really. Since you have proven to be one of our best healers, your grandmother has asked if you could become her Master Healer assistant and teach the girls in our tribe the way of healing.”

Lana started to smile as she thought of how incredible it was for her family to recognize her waterbending skills, even if it was only half of them. 

She was about to accept when her father continued to speak. “I know you haven’t been very happy with me lately, but I was hoping this would be a way for you to feel proud of our traditions. Your strength in waterbending can help so many of our young girls who look up to you.” 

Even though she saw his double meaning, Lana thought it over and swelled with pride that her father and grandmother both thought she was great enough to teach young girls how to heal with waterbending.

She just couldn’t stop herself from wishing she could also teach her tribe’s girls how to martial bend too. 

As she mentally shook herself from saying any of this to not ruin the moment, Lana smiled at her father and knew it was an honour to be offered something like this. “Thank you dad, I would love to.”

Even if she was about to commit her days to teaching others how to heal, Lana knew she had already mastered all of the scrolls from the library. 

From all of the years she dedicated to stealing them one by one, she knew them like the back of her hand.

As she started to head out to go to her room for the night, Lana glanced back at her father and wondered if he ever actually knew what kind of training and sparring she did when she would go to her abandoned area ever since she was a little girl. 

Turning back around, she had to stop to thank the spirits that she was never caught and held a grateful smile as things were looking up between them. 

After a couple of weeks passed of being her Nana’s assistant, Lana realized how hard it was to actually teach waterbending to little kids… it always just came more naturally to her. 

Lana was walking out of Yagoda’s healing hut after yet another lesson that felt like six years to finally be over. 

Running up to the palace, Lana saw Yue waiting for her canoe ride like she always did ever since they were little. 

Lana watched her as she waved and smiled around to the people walking by, not letting anyone see how much she was still upset on the inside with her engagement. 

As she thought about her future brother-in-law, she almost gagged at what an arrogant turd he was. She knew Yue deserved the world, and this guy was far from offering it. 

Ever since her Master Healer ceremony, Lana made it her personal goal to try and get Yue to laugh as much as possible in order to help her through the hurt of not being with someone she truly, actually was in love with. 

As she saw one of her father’s guards come around the bend of the water canal swirling his hands to make the canoe float down towards the palace, Lana felt herself start to smirk and move towards Yue.

As she crept up on her sister, Lana quickly grabbed her shoulders and yelled, “Happy birthday!”

Yue yelped as she didn’t expect her twin to be so loud in front of so many people. 

Even though she thought it was completely inappropriate for Lana to be doing this to her in public now that they were viewed as adults in their tribe, Yue couldn’t stop herself from laughing at her sister. 

“Lana, you are crazy!” Yue giggled as she looked at her twin and nudged her side. “But happy birthday to you too. Even after all this time, I still wouldn’t want you to change one bit.”

“Oh stop, Yue.” Lana mockingly put her hand under her chin and looked up to the sky. “You’re making me blush.”

The girls started to laugh some more as the canoe finally came to a stop in front of the palace stairs. 

Smiling towards the waterbending guard, Yue looked back at Lana and asked, “Want to come with me for a birthday canoe ride?” 

Lana shrugged her shoulders. “Sure. There is nothing else going on in this tribe, might as well do something with my life.”

Yue started to shake her head as she took the front seat. 

Instead of stepping in like a normal person, Lana jumped into the middle of the canoe causing it to rock back and forth, forcing the guard and Yue to hold on for dear life. 

Yue turned around to shoot back a glare at Lana, but as soon as she saw the guard narrow his eyes at her twin and Lana’s sheepish smile at both of them, Yue quietly laughed.

As she turned back to look around the city during their ride, Yue sarcastically said, “How can there be nothing going on in this city if you’re in it, Lana?” 

Lana laid down in between Yue’s seat and the guard on the flat flooring of the canoe. “Well, you can’t be wrong when you’re right, Yue.” 

As Lana got comfortable on her back with her hands under her head, she lifted one of her legs up and over her other one as she stared up at the sky while the guard shook his head and continued to waterbend them down the canal again. 

After a bit of riding around, Lana suddenly heard the horns on the Northern Water Tribe walls being blown. 

Still laying on the canoe flooring, Lana shot a confused look at Yue’s back but when Yue didn’t turn around, she just assumed it was another group of fishermen coming back from their weekly trip. 

Out of nowhere, Lana then heard gasps and whispers from the people on the frozen sidewalks.

Now this immediately got her attention but since Yue wasn’t making a big deal out of it, she kept herself low on the canoe when suddenly, a massive white animal came through her peripheral vision. 

Lana immediately whipped up and saw three people on what looked like a huge flying bison that the twins learned about in their history lesson on air nomads. 

As Lana’s jaw hit the canoe floor, she noticed that there was a boy in orange and yellow robes, sitting on its head and two people on its back. She couldn’t stop staring as they were passing by. 

The boy on the bison’s head was happily waving to her tribe members while they were looking at him in just about the same amount of shock as Lana.

Lana leaned forward over the canoe when she noticed his friends were dressed in blue parkas yet she knew for a fact she had never seen them in the city before. 

She quickly looked from the new visitors to her twin and was a little bit concerned when Yue didn’t even seem to really bat an eye at them.

Snapping her neck back to the swimming bison, Lana watched as the guy with a blue parka ran down the bison’s tail and was staring at Yue like a love-sick koalaotter. 

Even though she knew he was entranced by her twin, Lana gave him a half wave as she thought she saw a little bit of drool fall out of his mouth when they finally floated by.

Lana furrowed her brows and was utterly confused on what just happened. 

As she sat in the middle of the canoe, she glanced from Yue to the guard and couldn’t help but ask, “Uhhhhh…. What?” 

Later that night, Arnook told Lana and Yue to wait for his announcement to enter the celebration in the frozen ballroom. As she tried her hardest to be patient, Lana looked at Yue and asked, “Do you know who those visitors are?”

Yue then looked at Lana like she had ten octopus arms. “Oh my goodness, Lana. I thought you would’ve noticed the airbending tattoos… and I don’t know, the flying bison?”

“Yeah I mean it’s kinda hard to miss the bison, but… Airbending tattoos? Does that mean… Does that mean that young boy is the-”

“The Avatar?” Yue placed her hand over her mouth to stop herself from giggling at Lana. “Yes, he is the Avatar and he is visiting the city.”

“Oh, this is so exciting! Finally, something interesting and new is happening here!” Lana said as she jumped around. “I can’t wait to hear about all of his adventures!”

Suddenly, they heard the ceremonial drums start to play as their father prepared to stand and give his speech. 

Lana peeked a bit further out to look at their new guests as Yue playfully rolled her eyes at Lana’s excitement.

“Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our Brother and Sister from the Southern Tribe.” 

Arnook gestured towards the young guests. “And they have brought with them someone very special who many of us believed disappeared from the world until now. The Avatar!”

As Yue realized it was almost their cue to walk through the ballroom entrance, she grabbed Lana’s upper arm and dragged her to the right spot. 

After the room stopped their cheering, Arnook started to turn around to look at his twins as he introduced them into the ballroom. 

“We also celebrate my twin daughters’ sixteenth birthdays! Princess Yue and Princess Lana are now of marrying age.” 

At the moment, Yue and Lana started to walk through the entrance. Smiling out to their people, Lana and Yue bowed and at the same time said, “Thank you, father.” 

As Lana looked around the room, Yue announced, “May the Great Ocean and Moon Spirits watch over us during these troubling times!” 

Glancing back to Yue, Lana couldn’t help but swell with pride at how amazing Yue was at being a Princess to their people. 

After they shared a smile with Arnook, their father finished his speech. “And now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!”

The twins started to walk over to the head table, but Lana couldn’t stop herself from shooting a glare in Master Pakku’s direction. Even if there was no way he could see it.

As they made their way to sit down, Yue decided to sit next to the Southern Tribe boy while Lana took her seat next to Yue. 

All of a sudden, the boy started to introduce himself to Lana and Yue… But mostly Yue, Lana noticed. She tried not to laugh when she made the connection that he was obviously the one that was drooling over her twin when they first arrived. 

“Hi there, Sokka, Southern Water Tribe.”

Yue gave him a small smile and bowed her head as she sweetly replied, “Very nice to meet you.” 

Instead of just asking what her name was, Sokka decided it would be better to guess which twin Yue was. He leaned forward and said, “So, uh… You’re Princess Lana?!” 

Yue started to giggle at him as she leaned back and turned towards Lana so that Sokka could see her better. “No, this is Princess Lana.”

“Hi Sokka, nice to meet ya!” Lana said as she gave him a wave with an entertained look on her face when she saw that he was clearly embarrassed he got Yue’s name wrong.

Taken back from Lana’s boldness, Sokka blushed from getting both of their names wrong right off the bat and started to rub his neck. “Oh, sorry about that… You know.. ‘Cause you’re twins, it’s hard to tell. Hah.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Especially, you know, the opposite hair colors.” Lana said as she pointed to her and Yue’s hair, trying her hardest not to chuckle at how much he was blushing and babbling. 

Shaking himself from feeling so awkward, Sokka laughed and mustered up some more courage. “Well, it’s good to meet you too, Princess Lana.” 

Lana looked at him as a cheeky grin grew on her face then turned back to eat her food and to give Sokka and Yue a little privacy. 

Sokka decided to try again and gestured his arms out towards Yue. “So, then you are Princess Yue!” 

Yue nodded her head as she smiled. 

With his elbow now on the table, Lana overheard Sokka say, “You know, back in my tribe I’m kind of a Prince myself.” 

Glancing from one to the other, Lana saw Yue had wide eyes as she stared at Sokka. 

Lana had to pinch herself to not laugh at their conversation. 

Out of nowhere, Lana and Yue heard the Southern Water Tribe girl sitting next to Sokka chuckle and teasingly ask, “Oh, yeah? Prince of what?”

As Sokka gawked at the girl, Lana and Yue exchanged quick glances. 

Lana wiggled her eyebrows at her while Yue rolled her eyes as if to tell Lana to stop, and they quickly turned back to watch the exchange between the Southern Tribe visitors. 

Sokka blanched and said, “A lot of things! Do you mind, Katara? I’m trying to have a conversation here.” 

As Lana mentally tried to remember the girl’s name was Katara, she tilted her head over the table to watch the girl mockingly bow and honor him by saying, “My apologies, Prince Sokka.” 

From their interactions and how similar they looked, Lana knew they just had to be brother and sister. 

Trying to stop herself from prying into Sokka and Yue’s conversation, Lana kept her eyes focused on her food and started to eat… But that didn’t mean she couldn't listen. She figured there was nothing else to do, unless she wanted to talk to the open space next to her and look like a psychopath. 

“So, Princess Yue, it looks like we’re going to be in town for a little while, maybe we could… do an activity together?” 

As Yue tried her hardest not to laugh at the poor guy, she smiled widely at him while Lana practically choked and had to turn her head so no one could see her silent laughter at how she thought that was such a weird way to say ‘let’s get to know each other.’ 

Lana then heard Yue ask, “Do an activity?” And she almost fell off her chair from trying so hard to keep it together.

Covering her mouth and getting her composure back, Lana peeked over at his face and it had ‘embarrassment’ written all over it. 

Lana and Yue then watched him promptly stuff his mouth with food. 

The twins then glanced at each other and started to quietly giggle as they both heard Katara say, “Very smooth.”

As the celebration continued, Yue and Lana watched some of the palace staff take the Southern Tribe members to their guest rooms as their father started to guide the Avatar over to Master Pakku.

Lana wanted nothing more than to run over and warn him about how much of a jerk Pakku could be, but she figured he would be able to tell almost immediately. 

She also figured if anyone could handle him, it would be the Avatar. 

As Yue and Lana walked back through the palace area to head to bed for the night, Lana saw Yue catch Sokka’s eye in the guest house. 

Lana raised one of her eyebrows at him as he yet again looked like he was in love with her twin. 

Once they finally got into their bedroom, Lana turned towards Yue and leaned against the door with a knowing smile.

Yue started to get ready for bed when she noticed Lana was staring at her. 

She immediately stopped what she was doing and said, “Oh, what in the spirits is it now, Lana?”

Kicking her foot off the door, Lana skipped over to her bed as she said, “I don’t know, Yue, did you see the way that boy looked at you?” Then she started to tease her by mockingly singing, “Someone has a crush on you.”

Yue rolled her eyes at Lana and put her hands on her hips. “Oh, stop it, Lana. We just met our guests and you’re already getting crazy ideas. I’m sure he was just nervous.”

“Yeah, exactly! He fell for you the second he saw you. Trust me, I saw the drool.” Lana playfully whispered, as she tried to get a rise out of her twin.

“Lana… knock it off.” Before Yue could even stop herself, her next comment back to Lana rolled off her tongue way too quickly. “I never teased you like this when Zuko had a crush on you.” 

Yue didn’t even realize what she had said before it was too late. 

Lana slightly winced when she heard that come out of Yue’s mouth, realizing how long it had been since either one of them really talked about their past best friend. 

As Yue noticed her twin’s flinch at mentioning Zuko, she immediately felt guilty for going too far, even if Lana pushed her there. 

“Oh Lana, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you upse-“

Lana quickly cut her off as if she was trying to convince her twin and herself that it didn’t mean anything to her. “It’s okay, Yue! You know I was just having some fun.”

Hearing this come from Lana, Yue gave her a sad smile. Knowing her twin like the back of her hand, she couldn’t help but feel bad as Lana tried to brush it off. 

Trying to change the topic so she didn’t have to think about him at that moment, Lana said, “I can’t believe the Avatar and his friends are here! I can only imagine all of the places they have been.” 

Noticing how much Lana wanted the previous conversation to be over, Yue went with it. “You should ask him and his friend about their travels after their waterbending lessons tomorrow.”

“Wait, Sokka is a bender? I had no idea.” 

“Actually…” Yue contemplated it for a second. “I don’t know, I just overheard the Avatar say that him and his friend couldn’t wait for lessons, so I just assumed it was Sokka.”

Lana smirked as she tried to tease Yue one more time. “Well, good luck to both of them if Pakku gives them a hard time. Guess we’ll have to spend a lot more time with them tomorrow to get to know them more, now won’t we?” 

After she playfully rolled her eyes at Lana, Yue started to giggle and hug her goodnight. 

As they both crawled into their own beds, Lana tried her hardest to fall asleep and not think about what Yue said.

But that didn’t happen as she looked out their bedroom window and couldn’t stop herself from tugging on her golden necklace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, the Gaang is here! 
> 
> I was going to include the Waterbending Masters chapter with this one, but it ended up being WAY too long, but I’m so excited to share what I have planned next!
> 
> As always, thanks for reading, commenting and the kudos! Lmk what you think of this one ❤️


	16. The Waterbending Masters

The next morning, Lana woke herself up early and got ready to assist yet another one of Yagoda’s healing lessons. As she noticed Yue had just finished getting ready herself, Lana hooked Yue’s arm around her own and they walked out of their room. 

After they walked outside, Lana shielded her eyes from the sunrise and groaned, already wanting the lesson to be over.

Trying to make her feel better, Yue said, “Come on, Lana, it can’t be that bad.”

Lana sighed, “No, it’s not that bad, it’s just… unfair that I’ve been asking for these lessons practically my whole life, but the Avatar and Sokka show up and they get in right away.”

Yue glanced from Lana to the ground. She knew how badly Lana wanted to prove herself, but she was afraid that was all just a shot in the dark with their tribe’s customs. 

They walked up to Yue’s usual spot for her daily canoe ride and said goodbye to each other as Lana made her way to the healing hut. 

Later on in the lesson, Lana was watching her grandmother teach the young girls and had to stop herself from getting distracted. 

Shaking herself from her boredom, Lana got up to prepare the next set of her grandmother’s healing scrolls when suddenly, she heard someone come inside the hut. 

Turning around to see who it was, Lana quietly covered her mouth as a gasp tried to escape her throat when she saw Katara in the doorway.

Katara had a downcast look on her face as she said, “Uh, hi, are you Yagoda?”

Yagoda smiled up to the newcomer and asked, “Are you here for the healing lesson?”

Katara sadly looked around at all the young girls, her shoulders dropped in disappointment. “I guess I am.” 

As Yagoda started to welcome her into the room, Katara looked up and gasped when she saw Princess Lana standing in the back of the lesson room. 

As they made eye contact, Lana sent her a sad yet understanding smile. She realized it wasn’t Sokka who was the waterbender, it was actually Katara. 

Even though she didn’t know it until that very second, she couldn’t stop herself from feeling guilty about not being able to warn Katara of the constricting traditions her tribe had towards women waterbenders. She saw how let down the younger girl was to come to their city just to get rejected by Pakku. 

If anyone could relate, that person was Lana. 

After Yagoda dismissed the class with Lana by her side, Katara walked up to them. “Thank you Yagoda for the healing lesson.” 

As any grandmother would, Yagoda saw yet another opportunity to brag about her granddaughter. “Of course. Without my Master Healer assistant here, it would’ve taken us a bit longer.”

“Well, thank you too, Princess Lana. I didn’t realize you were a Master Healer already! That’s incredible.” 

Lana smiled at Katara and said, “Thanks, Katara.” She wrapped her arm around Yagoda’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my Nana’s help along the way.” Yagoda playfully rolled her eyes at Lana and shimmied her off. 

Katara looked between them as she replied, “Oh, I didn’t realize Yagoda is your granddaughter, that is so great you get to learn from her.”

“Yeah, I’m so lucky.” Lana said as she gave her Nana a grateful smile. 

Lana then watched her grandmother and Katara talk about the betrothal necklace around Katara’s neck.

Out of nowhere, Yagoda said, “Wait a second, I recognize this craving. I should have realized this sooner, you’re the spitting image of Kanna!”

Katara jumped back in shock while Lana leaned forward and furrowed her eyebrows at Yagoda. 

Katara was visibly shocked as she asked, “Wait, how do you know my Gran Gran’s name?” 

Lana then was the one to take a step back as they both found out that her grandmother and Katara’s grandmother were friends when they were little. 

As Yagoda explained that Katara’s grandmother was engaged before she left the Northern Water Tribe for the Southern tribe without saying goodbye to her, Lana couldn’t stop herself from thinking of how she never knew anyone who left their tribe. 

It gave her hope that maybe, one day she would be able to see all of the places she has read and dreamt about.

After Yagoda dismissed both of them, Lana decided to give Katara a tour around the city.

Katara mustered some courage to ask her about their traditions. “So, Princess Lana. if you don’t mind me asking, why does your tribe forbid women from learning combat waterbending?”

Lana couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Just call me Lana, no need to be formal with me. And you know, Katara, I have been asking that question ever since I knew how to waterbend.”

Katara smiled at how carefree the Princess seemed to be. “Well, you’re obviously an amazing healer… Have you ever tried to fight with waterbending?”

Lana quirked an eyebrow at Katara, thinking about if she could trust her. Even though she only knew Katara for a little under a day, she could tell how badly the younger girl wanted to learn as much waterbending as she could, so Lana decided to take a chance.

Lana looked around to make sure no one was able to hear her as she leaned towards Katara and whispered, “Can you keep a secret?”

Katara tilted her head in confusion. “What? Yeah… Of course, what is it?”

Lana leaned in closer as she said, “I’ve been teaching myself ever since I was seven how to fight by stealing waterbending scrolls from our library. I wasn’t about to let the rules stop me from learning how to become a warrior, and neither should you.”

Katara’s face broke out into a huge smile. “Really? That’s incredible! I ended up stealing a scroll from pirates just to learn more not too long ago.”

“No way! Pirates?” Lana started to chuckle at how crazy it sounded. “Why would pirates have a waterbending scroll?”

Katara giggled at Lana’s reaction and said, “Trust me, you don’t want to know. A lot of crazy fights have happened to Sokka, Aang and I on our way here.”

Finally, Lana realized she actually could now put a name next to the Avatar's face. Just as Lana was about to ask who they had to fight and what kind of adventures they have had together, Katara started to talk.

Katara nervously asked, “Do you think… Do you think you could teach me some of the moves you know?”

Surprised from her question, Lana gasped and jumped into the air out of excitement. “Of course, Katara! I have always wanted to be able to teach the other girls of my tribe, so I would be so happy to teach you! As long as you tell me all about your adventures with Avatar Aang and Sokka.”

Quickly grabbing Katara’s hand, she started to pull her away and run. “Come on, I have a secret place.”

As Katara looked around at Lana’s abandoned practicing arena, she was completely in awe at how many ice sculptures and frozen spears were covering the sides of the deserted area. “Wow, this place is unbelievable!” 

Lana started to laugh at her own destruction of the place over the years. “Yeah, I’ve done this place some serious damage. But no one comes around here, so I figured why not go crazy with it, ya know? Plus I haven’t brought anyone around here for quite some time so let me just fix it up before we get started.”

Lana walked over to the center of her area and placed her hands down. 

Slowly swaying her arms and bringing them up in front of her chest, the sculptures and spears started to melt from Lana changing their phases. 

She moved her arms from side to side as the water started to collect altogether. Just as she was about done collecting all of the mess she made, she raised her arms up to create a water tower.

“Alright.” Lana clapped her hands together. “Now we can do this!”

Looking up at the tower, Katara was already impressed. “How do you usually practice how to fight?”

“Okay, you have to promise not to laugh…. I build snowmen.” Lana looked at Katara’s face as Katara tried her hardest not to burst out and giggle. 

Just Katara’s face alone made Lana hysterically laugh with Katara joining in. 

“I know, I know. It sounds absolutely insane, but when you make enough of them, it really helps with practicing your aim. It’s basically like an obstacle course.”

Still, Katara’s face was contorted in disbelief. 

Lana slowly started to smirk. “Well, if you don’t believe me, how about I show you what I mean?”

After she waterbended at least ten snowmen around the arena, Lana walked back to her freshly made tower. As she turned around to start her usual training, Lana picked up some water from the icy tower. She then jumped into the air and started to make blocks of frozen ice for her to leap onto it. 

Getting to the first couple of snowmen, she slashed through each of their sides, making them fall into piles of snow. 

As she continued down her mockup course, Lana lifted herself up onto a high ice column in front of a few more snowmen. Shen then kicked up and backflipped off of the column as she extended her arms to waterbend jets of water to shoot right through them. 

Spinning around to face the last few, she reached out to the piles of snow on the side of a closeby building and rotated her arms to enclose herself in a water circle. 

Using the water circle to her advantage, she swirled her arms towards the remaining three snowmen and clenched her fists making little water streams gush out of the circle and harden into ice spears at the end to puncture into them, making them all collapse. 

Out of breath, Lana wiped the sweat off of her forehead and turned around to see what Katara thought.

When she saw Katara’s face, she couldn’t stop herself from giggling. 

“That was amazing, Lana!” Katara rushed over to where she was standing. “I need to try this obstacle course.”

“Yeah you do! But first, I would love to see what moves you know, so that way we know where to start. Plus what I just did was to completely still objects, not like you who has at least had a few fights. So once you are ready, we can start to spar and practice together!”

Hearing this all come from Lana, Katara started to get even more excited. “Either way, Lana, that was so incredible to watch. I’m surprised you’ve never sparred with anyone before.”

Lana tried not to flinch as she knew that wasn’t completely true. She just hadn’t sparred with anyone for six years at that point. 

Trying to erase that from popping up in her mind, Lana ignored her thoughts to stay focused. “Well, now that you’re here, I finally have someone to practice with.” 

Sharing a smile with Katara, Lana clapped her hands together and said, “Okay, show me what you got.”

After Katara showed her the good amount of moves she had learned over such a short period of time of her traveling, Lana was very impressed with her waterbending. 

Lana got up and walked over to where she was standing. “Katara, you are such a natural! You should be so proud of yourself.” 

Katara beamed as she swelled with pride at Lana’s encouragement. She had been waiting her whole life for someone like Lana to help her hone her waterbending. “Thanks, Lana. That means the world to me.”

Lana smiled at the younger girl and decided they should stream the water together. As she transformed frozen water into liquid water, Lana showed her how to make it easier to change the phase. 

Continuing their practice, Lana asked, “Why don’t we stream the water together so that you can get a feel for the water?”

Katara couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

As they practiced streaming the water back and forth, Lana just had to ask her about all of their adventures. Katara told her all about the places they have been. Even though she was so happy to be hearing all about their travels, she couldn’t stop herself from being a bit envious of the group. 

Sensing something was off, Katara gave her a confused look and asked, “Is everything okay?”

Lana shook herself from clearly showing her jealousy. “Oh yeah, of course! It’s just that… I have read about so many of these places you are talking about, and I’ve always wanted to go travel and see them… but I just don’t see how that could happen.”

As Katara quickly thought of a solution, she tried to make Lana feel better. “Well… Maybe you could come with us! It would be awesome to have another waterbender, especially one that is a Master Healer.”

Lana had to laugh at that since she knew her parents would never let her leave their tribe. 

Trying to change the subject so that she wouldn’t get her hopes up, Lana said, “Trust me, Katara, I can already tell you will be a Master Healer and fighter in no time. Did your parents teach you how to bend?”

“No, my dad isn’t a bender…” Katara sadly looked away, but continued to push the water stream back to Lana. “My mom wasn’t a bender either, but Sokka and I lost her to a Fire Nation raid when I was only 8 years old.”

Lana quietly gasped as she heard what Katara said. She didn’t realize Sokka and Katara’s mother had passed. 

She instantly dropped the water and walked over to place a comforting hand on Katara’s shoulder. “Oh, Katara, I’m so sorry. That’s absolutely horrible and I didn’t mean to bring her up in such an insensitive way. I just wanted to-“

Katara cut her off as she said, “No, I know… don’t worry, Lana, how could you have known? It happened six years ago, so I have tried to heal, but it's just too painful knowing how ruthless the Fire Nation is.”

Lana nodded. “Of course, Katara. But no matter what, you and your family didn’t deserve to go through something like that.”

Then Lana realized something. “Wait… Are you… Are you the last Southern waterbender?”

As another frown grew on her face, Katara replied, “Yeah, sadly I’m all that’s left of the waterbenders in the South… That’s part of the reason why I came here.”

As Lana heard the words come out of Katara’s mouth, she couldn’t believe it. She felt herself grow numb as she remembered when her parents broke the news to her all those years ago.

All this time, knowing the Fire Nation went searching to kill the last Southern waterbender, and it ended up being Katara, this kind girl she just met yesterday. 

As she tried to control her face, Lana couldn’t stop the pure anger rising to her chest at the Fire Nation’s actions. It made all of her memories of when she found out the Fire Nation’s betrayal that fateful night come back and slap her in the face. 

Lana clenched her knuckles until they turned white as she tried to compose herself from feeling disgusted with the Fire Nation killing an innocent woman. 

But now the person the Fire Nation took away from this world wasn’t just an innocent woman, it was Katara and Sokka’s mother. This revelation just about made Lana want to scream.

Katara watched as Lana tried to visibly control herself when she heard the icy ground start to crack. Nervous for her new friend, Katara grabbed Lana’s shoulders and yelled, “Lana! Lana! What’s wrong?”

Shaking herself from her anger at the Fire Nation, Lana looked back into Katara’s eyes as she realized she had almost blacked out from her blind anger. 

As she tried to calm herself down, Lana made Katara a personal commitment. “I’m sorry, Katara… I just.. I can’t believe you’re the last Southern waterbender. I promise I will teach you everything I know.”

Katara felt confused as she thought about how upset Lana just got, but as soon as she heard Lana’s promise, she couldn’t help but hug her. After waiting way too long for someone to teach her waterbending, she was so grateful that Lana was going to be there for her. 

After they let go of their hug, Katara and Lana decided to head back to the palace for dinner. As they walked back through the city, Lana gave Katara a smirk and said, “Would you want to keep practicing tonight?” 

Katara swelled with happiness. “I would love to! Maybe Aang will join us so he can show us what Master Pakku taught him.”

Lana turned back to look at the palace as she replied, “Well, that sounds just about perfect to me.” 

After dinner, Lana and Yue walked up to their room for both of their nights. Unknowingly to each other, they both had made exciting plans. 

Lana noticed Yue start to get ready as a hidden smirk played on Yue’s lips. When she noticed something was up, Lana finally asked, “What’s going on? Why are you getting ready?”

Yue flinched as she didn’t expect Lana to actually notice her excitement. “Oh, nothing really… I just told Sokka I would meet him to get to know him… Nothing huge.”

Even if Lana wanted to control herself, she couldn’t as she jumped in the air and bounced around their room. “This is so great! How did this all happen?”

As Yue explained to Lana that Sokka talked to her during her usual daily canoe ride, Lana smirked as she noticed Yue’s cheeks turn red. 

From seeing how excited her twin was to get to know Sokka, Lana was thrilled that Yue was finally getting recognized for how amazing she was. 

After she stopped telling Lana everything, Yue’s blush fell off her face as she glanced down at the floor and sat on her bed with a frown. 

Lana noticed Yue’s mood change and immediately went over and sat down next to her. “Yue, what’s wrong?”

Looking up from the floor to her sister, Yue whispered, “Lana… you know what’s wrong. I want to get to know Sokka, but I feel guilty knowing I am engaged… This is so unfair.”

Taking Yue’s hand in her own, Lana sighed. “Listen, Yue… There is nothing wrong with getting to know Sokka. He seems like such a nice guy that just wants to spend time with you. Let yourself enjoy it.”

Yue still had a pensive look as she thought about what Lana was saying. “Okay… I guess you’re right.”

Smiling at Yue’s answer, Lana said, “Good. I mean, c’mon, have I ever steered you wrong?”

Yue let out a loud laugh at Lana’s ridiculousness. “Actually… on more than one occasion, yes, you completely have.”

Lana stood up and gasped as she faked being shocked. But she couldn’t stop herself from immediately joining Yue in giggling, because they both knew that was true. 

“Oh, alright… But maybe, just maybe, this time I won’t.” Lana grabbed Yue’s hand. “Lets go, I’ll walk you to the bridge before I meet up with Katara and Avatar Aang.” 

After dropping Yue off at the bridge to meet Sokka, Lana walked down the stairs to catch up with Katara and Aang. As she walked into their guest house, Lana saw Avatar Aang and Katara laying around.

Katara immediately shot herself up from the ground and yelled, “Lana! You made it.”

Lana smiled and said, “Hi Katara!” Turning around to officially meet the Avatar, Lana suddenly got nervous. “Hi Avatar Aang, it’s such an honor to finally meet you.”

Aang airbended himself up with a huge grin on his face. “Please Princess Lana, just call me Aang. Katara has been telling me all about you! She told me how amazing you are at waterbending.”

Glancing at Katara as she started to blush, Lana looked back at Aang and said, “Oh, call me Lana. I can’t wait to practice with you guys! Katara told me all about your adventures, I can’t believe you guys have been to so many places! What was your favorite adventu-”

Out of nowhere, Sokka angrily walked in with his head down and kicked his sleeping bag. 

Being the brave one in the room, Katara asked, “Uh… How’s warrior training going?”

Lana knew he just got back from hanging out with Yue, so she instantly figured something bad must have happened. She felt conflicted to make her presence be known as he didn’t even notice her in the guesthouse. 

Without giving her a chance to say anything, Sokka flopped onto his rolled up sleeping bag and stuck his face into it. He mumbled, “No it’s not that. It’s Princess Yue. I don’t get it, one second she wants to go out with me and the next-” 

Sokka immediately shut up as he looked up and gasped at seeing Lana standing in the guest hut. “Oh! Princess Lana! I didn’t see you there! Uh… What are you doing here?”

As she tried not to feel bad about Sokka being upset and wanting to protect Yue’s privacy, Lana pretended like everything was fine. “Well… I’m here to teach and practice waterbending with Katara, and Aang is going to come with us.” 

Sitting up from lying down, Sokka looked towards Katara. “Aren’t you learning from Master Pakku?”

Aang angrily looked away from all of them. “Master Poophead won’t teach her because she’s a girl.” 

Although she liked the way Aang put it, Lana couldn’t help but look down in disappointment at her tribe’s stupid rules. 

Katara glanced at her brother and said, “But, that’s why we’re leaving because Lana is a secret Master! She’s teaching me everything she knows. Everybody’s happy!”

Sokka’s shoulders dropped as he furrowed his brows. “I’m not happy.” 

Katara then replied, “But you’re never happy. C’mon guys, let’s go before it gets too late.”

As Katara and Aang ran out of the hut, Lana stopped and turned around to look at Sokka. “Oh, and Sokka? I know it’s a bit confusing right now, but I saw how excited Yue was to get to know you… Just give her some time.”

Sokka looked at her and smiled in relief. “Well, thanks Princess Lana… I’m sorry you heard me talk about Princess Yue like that.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. And like I told Katara and Aang, just call me Lana.” Lana sent him a smirk as she turned around to catch up with Aang and Katara. 

As they walked by a bridge to start waterbending, Lana knew it was way too open of an area to practice in. “Uh guys… I hate to break this to you, but I think we should go somewhere else.”

“What, why?” Aang asked as he looked around. “No one is around.”

Lana anxiously glanced at him. “I know, but I’ve only ever practiced in an abandoned area or the palace rooftop. I don’t really know who could be around here.”

Katara also looked around, but she didn’t see or hear anything that could get them in trouble. “But it’s the middle of the night? Who could really catch us right now?”

“Uhm… Well, I guess you’re right.” Shaking it off, Lana looked at Aang. “Okay, why don’t you show us what Master Pakku taught you?”

Moving towards the canal, Aang reached out to waterbend a stream of water as he explained one of the moves. “Master Pakku says this move is all about sinking and floating.” 

As he shifted his stance to pass the water to Lana, she swayed her arms around the stream to waterbend and spin the water around herself. 

Passing it off to Katara, Lana watched her practice her ‘sink and float’ as a smile broke out on her face. Katara happily shouted, “I got it!” 

Out of nowhere, the stream twisted around Katara’s whole body and shot up into the air. 

Lana was pretty impressed while Aang grabbed his head and couldn’t stop himself from yelling, “That was amazing!”

Katara looked back at Lana, thinking she was the one to waterbend the water around her and instantly held out her hands. “That wasn’t me.” Lana shook her head to tell them it wasn’t her either. 

As they heard ice spikes being sent into the bridge edging above, all of them snapped their heads up to see Master Pakku staring down at them in disbelief.

Lana immediately wanted to explode, but instead sent Katara and Aang both ‘I told you so’ looks. 

Lana knew that the only thing that made getting caught that much worse was that out of anyone who could have found them breaking the rules, it just had to be Master Poophead. 

Aang tried to make everything all better as he said, “Master Pakku, I can explain! I was just showing Katara and Lana a few moves.”

Pakku shook his head in disappointment. “You have disrespected me, my teachings and my entire culture. You are no longer welcome as my student.”

With that, he started to walk away when he suddenly turned back. “Oh, and Princess Lana, expect your father to be hearing about this.”

All three of them dropped their jaws to the ground at what an absolute mess they just made for themselves. 

The next morning, the Council and the royal family gathered on the frozen ballroom steps to hear what Katara and Aang had to say for themselves. 

Right before Katara and Aang walked in, Arnook sent Lana a disappointed frown. She immediately wanted to try and explain why she did what she did. “But dad, I don’t think it’s fair that-”

Arnook cut her off and said, “Stop, Lana. We will talk about this later.”

As they were waiting for Katara and Aang to come talk, Yue glanced at Lana as she sat down next to her. They had talked about what had happened when Lana got back to their room last night and even though Yue tried to make her feel better about everything, Lana felt guilty for not being more careful. 

At that moment, Katara and Aang walked in front of the Council. Katara immediately wanted to reason with them to get Master Pakku to continue teaching Aang. After Arnook explained to her that if she swallowed her pride and apologized, Pakku would maybe accept him back as a student. 

Right as Katara was about to say sorry, Master Pakku teasingly said, “I am waiting, little girl.”

Both Katara and Lana snapped their necks to look at him as they narrowed their eyes at his condescending statement. 

That was the snapping point for Katara. She started to yell, “No! No way am I apologizing to a sour old man like you!” 

As she screamed and threw her clenched fists down by her sides, everyone noticed the ice and water pots start to crack. Lana’s eyes widened from the raw power Katara was showing. 

“I’ll be outside if you are man enough to fight me.” With that, Katara left to prepare for their duel. 

Everyone in the Council gasped and looked at Katara like she was insane while Lana nodded her head and smugly smirked in pure admiration at her confidence. 

As the Council started to disperse, Lana watched Pakku start to make his way outside. She grabbed Yue’s hand and immediately sprinted as fast as she could to watch Katara kick this old man’s ass. 

Finally getting to the open arena, Lana watched as Pakku nonchalantly walked by Katara. 

Katara yelled, “Aren’t you going to fight me?”

Pakku simply responded with, “Go back to the healing huts with the other women, where you belong.” 

Yue had to hold Lana back from running off the steps as she was now ready to attack him while Katara narrowed her eyes and picked up some water. While holding onto it, she snapped a water whip directly at Pakku’s head. 

After he was hit, Pakku stopped walking and suddenly turned around. “Fine. You want to fight so bad, study closely.”

Instantly, their waterbending duel took off. As Pakku encircled them into a huge water circle, Lana held her hands over her mouth, praying to the spirits Katara could put Pakku in his place. 

As their fight continued, Pakku waterbended himself a frozen wave to shield himself from Katara’s attacks. She flew right over Pakku and landed on the palace stairs edging. 

Katara watched as Pakku changed the frozen slope into two streams and combined them to form a wave that was coming directly at her. Katara immediately froze her feet to the edging to defend herself. After scattering the rest of the water away from her, Katara yelled, “You can’t knock me down!”

Everyone standing on the stairs started to cheer for her while Lana screamed, “C’mon Katara! You can do it!”

Watching their attacks back to back, Lana saw how well Katara kept up with the old Master. 

Pakku took a second to prepare for his next hit. “Well, I'm impressed. You are an excellent waterbender.” 

Katara caught her breath and yelled, “But you still won’t teach me, will you?” 

Pakku simply responded with, “No.”

Move after move, Katara held her own until she fell from Pakku waterbending a slope and skating over to knock her off of her feet. 

Pakku then lifted his arms above his head as the water from the pools shot up into the sky. As the water collected above his head, he spread his fingers and clenched them down to make ice spikes shoot down to where she was standing. 

Katara was immediately encased in a frozen prison. As Pakku started to walk away, he calmly said, “This fight is over.”

“Get back here, I’m not finished yet!” Katara screamed as she tried getting out of the ice spikes. 

Pakku didn’t even turn to answer her. “Yes, you a-”

Out of nowhere, Pakku was hit in the back of the head by another water whip. “I said, we are done!” 

Thinking somehow Katara got out of her frozen prison, Pakku whipped around and his eyes widened when he saw it wasn’t Katara that hit him with the water. 

Lana stood there tall and proud at the bottom of the stairs as a smirk played on her lips. “Oh, we haven’t even gotten started just yet.” 

Immediately, Lana ran over to free Katara and waterbended the prison to her command. As Katara sprinted away to watch their duel with everyone else, Lana took control and pushed the water to erupt an iceberg spike directly towards Pakku. 

Pakku jumped out of the way before the ice could hit him. Standing up to brush off his robe, he narrowed his eyes at the Princess. “Well, I see you have taught yourself how to fight with some new moves. Are you sure you want to fight a Master like me?”

“Well, Master Pakku, I have taught myself more than just a few moves.” Lana nonchalantly said as she got into her next offensive stance. “Besides, I have waited a long time for this moment… Trust me on that.”

Straight away, Lana ran over to one of the water pools as Pakku started to send water jets at her. 

As she waterbended two rotating water rings around herself, Lana started to slash parts of the rings to attack Pakku with ice shards. 

Pakku gasped and sprinted into the other pool of water. As he spun himself in the water and swayed his arms, he rose up into the air with the water holding him up. 

“Are you sure you can keep up, Princess Lana?” 

Not even bothering to give him an answer, Lana copied his waterbending move and immediately created her own water sprout and also shot thirty feet up into the air.

Battling back and forth all around the open area, Pakku and Lana continued to send each other attacks as they raced on their water sprouts. 

Having enough of this back to back duel, Lana dropped from her water sprout and front rolled onto the ground. 

As she rolled, she clenched her fists and slammed them against the icy ground sending a new layer of ice to creep up and freeze the water sprout holding Pakku in the air. 

Before he could get stuck, Pakku changed back the frozen water and waterbended himself another wave to propel himself closer to Lana to try and knock her down. 

But Lana wouldn’t have it.

She grabbed some water from the pools beside her and built an ice column in front of her. Just like Katara, she started to send ice disks towards him and his wave. 

Weaving in and out of her attacks, Pakku’s wave was suddenly slashed in half. In order to not land on his face, he had to jump and skid on his knees to a stop near the palace stairs. 

Paku knelt on the ground and tried to catch his breath when something caught his eye. He immediately picked up a lost necklace in front of him and recognized the carving. 

Turning back to put Lana in her place, Pakku started to raise his hands and gasped when he saw that Lana had already waterbended a water circle above his head with her arms above her own. 

Following the same technique as Pakku did to Katara, Lana sent down a rain storm of ice spikes to trap him into a frozen prison.

No one knew what to say or do. Everyone just stared in shock as Lana walked over to Pakku. 

“Now… This fight is over.”

After a second of staring into his soul, Lana wiped the sweat off her forehead and let him out of his prison as they both tried to catch their breaths. 

“I…” Pakku was lost for words as he stood up. “I have to admit, Princess Lana, that was one of the best waterbending duels I have ever had.”

As she tried to control her face from showing it, Lana swelled with pride and happiness at finally being able to show him and her whole tribe what she could really do. 

Out of nowhere, Katara ran over and yelled, “Lana, that was absolutely amazing!” Then she looked over to Pakku and noticed he was holding her necklace. 

Katara narrowed her eyes at Pakku. “Hey! Give that back to me, that’s my mother’s necklace.” 

Pakku took the necklace in both of his hands as his shoulders dropped in disbelief. “This is my necklace. I craved this sixty years ago… For the love of my life… For Kanna.”

As they heard this, Katara and Lana both took a step back and gasped. 

Katara muttered, “My grandmother was supposed to marry you?” 

As everyone in the crowds left to give them some privacy, Lana walked over a few feet to hug Yue as she stood with Sokka, Aang and Arnook. 

As they all started to listen, Pakku started to explain how he and Kanna were engaged, and how he thought they would live a happy life together. 

Katara then realized why her Gran-Gran moved to the South. “She didn’t love you, did she? It was an arranged marriage. She wouldn’t let your tribe’s stupid traditions dictate her life. That’s why she left… It must’ve taken a lot of courage.”

All of a sudden, Yue started to cry and run away from them all. Right before Lana was about to chase after her, she heard Aang tell Sokka to go get her. 

As Sokka turned and looked at Lana for her approval, she smiled and nodded her head. With that, Sokka ran after Yue to try and find her.

As Aang, Lana and Arnook walked over to Katara and Pakku, Lana started to talk. “Listen, I know you both thought that it was wrong for women to waterbend and become warriors, but I believe Katara and I just showed you that women are just as strong and powerful enough to stand up and fight as men are. This tradition has to end.”

Pakku and Arnook glanced at each other as they thought about everything that happened and what Lana said. After a few seconds of silence, Pakku nodded his head at Arnook. 

Arnook walked over to Lana and looked down into her eyes. 

He took a deep breath and said, “Lana, I should’ve listened to you from the beginning. I’m sorry, I know I can’t change the past and fix how I held you back, but I know there is one thing I can do.”

Arnook glanced from Lana to Katara. “I will put an end to this tradition so that all women waterbenders can learn how to fight and defend our tribe.”

Smiling up at her father with tears in her eyes, Lana jumped on him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Arnook let out a small gasp, but smiled as he hugged his daughter back. 

He whispered in her ear, “I’m so proud of you, my little troublemaker.”

The next morning, Pakku started to begin his class with Aang when Lana and Katara ran up the stairs to the open arena.

As he turned to see who it was, Pakku said, “What are you two doing?” 

Lana and Katara gawked at each other and sent him confused looks when he suddenly said, “It’s past sunrise, you’re late.” He sent them both a smirk. “Let us begin.”

The girls shared a smile before they copied Pakku’s stance and got into their waterbending position as Aang said, “It’s good to see you guys here.” Lana couldn’t stop herself from smiling ear to ear.

Because after all this time and her hard work and dedication, she finally showed her tribe that when facing doubt and adversity, women can and will show their power and strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAKE WAY FOR THE QUEENS! Just Katara and Lana, shutting down the patriarchy, taking names and kicking ass.
> 
> Lmk what you think of this crazy packed chapter, I know it was a lot but, the OG "The Waterbending Master" episode is one of my all-time favorites in ATLA, so I naturally had to do the damn thing. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! Next chapter will be Siege of the North Part I and should be up Wednesday night! 🥰


	17. The Siege of the North: Part I

Breathing in the ocean air, Lana sat at the top of the palace stairs at sunrise.

She closed her eyes to focus on listening to the ocean waves off in the distance. As she sat there waiting for Yue, Lana started to get lost in her own thoughts as she reminisced about how much had changed in such a short amount of time.

It truly felt like she blinked and a whole week had already flown by since Katara, Aang and Sokka first arrived. She never would’ve imagined that new guests coming into their city would have brought her the one thing she truly ever wanted; _Recognition._

A few days ago, Master Pakku stood up during one of their dinner celebrations and cleared his throat to make an announcement.

In front of the whole tribe and their guests, Pakku announced, “Tonight, it is my honor to declare Princess Lana a Master waterbender, both in combat and healing, and the first woman warrior the Northern Water Tribe has had in centuries.”

Everyone roared in the ballroom, and Lana felt shivers down her spine. Looking out at her people, her eyes started to water from the pure joy she felt from seeing everyone so happy as the room quickly filled with love and acknowledgment.

For the past nine years of her secret warrior training, her commitment and confidence in herself finally paid off. In that moment, Lana knew she was going to remember it as one of the best days of her life.

As the rest of the days passed by in a blur, the twins spent all of their time with their new friends in between lessons at sunrise to dinners well past sunset. At last, Lana felt like she finally had the freedom to be who she really was without anything to hide or anything to hold her back.

Lost in her daydreams, she didn’t even hear her twin walk up next to her on the icy stairs. Suddenly, she felt two taps on her shoulder.

Bolting up to her feet from the life being scared right out of her, Lana let out a squeal. She turned to her left to see Yue snickering.

“Wow… You must have been really out of it Lana, that almost never works.”

Lana rolled her eyes, but an embarrassed smile crept onto her face from being caught so dazed. “I mean, can you blame me? So much has happened!”

“Tell me about it.” Yue quirked an eyebrow up as she held back a smile. “You’re up at sunrise. I never thought I would actually get to see what a happy, Morning Lana would look like.”

Lana’s jaw dropped. She was stunned, truly not expecting to hear that from her sister. She playfully crossed her arms. “Hey, I’m just trying to follow Master Pakku’s orders.”

In her best Pakku impersonation she could muster, Lana repeated verbatim what he had told her when she was late for the very few lessons they even had together when she _accidentally_ slept in. “Water is the element of change, Princess Lana, and if you can’t get up for lessons and change your ways, then blahblahblah.”

Lana couldn’t hold back her loud laughter at Yue’s face from her mockery of Pakku. After a second of shock, Yue started to giggle with her.

Hooking her arm around Yue’s, Lana started to walk down the stairs towards the canal to start their day.

“Anyways, what’s got you so giddy this morning?” Lana asked as she tilted her head to the side to get a better look at her twin.

Yue immediately looked the other way, pretending to be suddenly very interested in the waterbenders pushing a canoe down the canal. “Oh, nothing really. I’m just excited to go spend some time with Sokka.”

“Ohhhh! I see… So we aren’t going to talk about how you like him and he likes you, and how you both like each other?”

Yue whipped around with her mouth hanging open, and whisper yelled, “Lana! Be quiet, what if someone hears you?! Besides we’re just friends.”

Lana chucked to tease Yue some more, when she suddenly felt like she was hit with a frozen brick as she realized after all this time of Yue knowing about Zuko and Lana’s secret childhood crushes on each other, that was usually her own response to her twin. _Or at least it used to be. Before things came crumbling down._

Shaking this stupid thought from running rampant in her mind, Lana gave Yue a half smile. “Well, just don’t leave me stuck in the North Pole while you and Sokka run away from your engagement to be together.”

She grabbed Yue’s arm hooked around her other arm. “At least bring me with you.”

As she looked at Yue with puppy polar dog eyes, both of the twins couldn’t stop themselves from laughing at Lana’s crazy idea.

Walking up to the bridge where Yue always met Sokka, the girls could see him eagerly pacing at the top. Lana quickly tapped Yue’s arm and pursed her lips as she put a finger up to her mouth. Yue rolled her eyes at her, knowing she wanted to pull a prank on the poor guy.

After softly clearing her throat, Lana mimicked Yue's voice. “Hi Sokka!”

Jumping out of happiness, Sokka whipped around towards the voice. “Princess Yue!”

Immediately, he turned bright red when he saw Lana and Yue huddled together, giggling to each other as they climbed up the bridge stairs.

“Alright Lana, it was funny at first, but now that joke is just getting old.”

Calming herself down, Lana playfully punched his shoulder. “Oh, Sokka, c’mon, if you stop being so gullible about it, I’ll stop.”

Sokka playfully rolled his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.” He then nudged her right back.

“Well, I gotta get going, I’ll see you guys in a bit.” Lana started to walk away, but pivoted at the last second. With a wink, she teased, “Have fun, you two.”

Turning back around to walk to the arena, she couldn’t help but chuckle at the last glimpse of rose colored cheeks on Sokka and Yue’s face.

Running across the city to assist Pakku’s lesson, Lana cursed herself as she realized she was late as per usual.

Skidding to a stop on the outskirts of the arena, she stood behind a tall water tower and peeked out to watch Katara redirect an offensive move sent to her by another student. Katara spun with the water, pushed her arms up and created a waterspout to pick up the poor boy Pakku had her spar with. With a flick of her wrist, Katara froze the student in the air.

Pakku walked over to the student and looked up at him. “Nice try, Pupil Sangok. In a couple of years, you might be able to fight a sea sponge.”

Turning around to face Katara, Pakku lifted his hand up to the side of his chest and brought it down to unfreeze the waterspout holding Sangok up. Lana winced at how the boy just flailed like a fish coming down to the ground.

As she focused her attention back to the old Master, Lana heard Pakku praise her new waterbending partner in crime.

“Katara, you have advanced more quickly than any student I have ever trained. You have proven with fierce determination, passion, and hard work, you can accomplish anything.”

Lana smiled as she imagined how happy Katara was beaming from Pakku’s words.

Inching closer to them without making a sound, she then watched Pakku call out to Aang, “Care to step into the sparring circle? If you have time to play with house pets, you must have already mastered waterbending.”

Aang replied, “I wouldn’t say ‘mastered’, but check this out.” Instantly, he spun and waterbended himself into a snowman, and Lana had to slap her hand over her mouth from almost bursting out into laughter.

As Katara and Pakku shook their heads in disapproval at Aang’s lack of focus, Pakku turned to the rest of the male waterbenders and asked, “Would anyone care for a rematch with Katara?”

Looking around at the other students, all of the boys started shaking their heads, praying to the spirits that Pakku wouldn’t choose them next.

Out of nowhere, Pakku and Katara heard, “Ahem”, right behind them.

They both turned around to see Lana standing there with her hands behind her back. “I guess if none of the boys are up for it, it’s the girls turn to show them how it’s done.”

Pakku smiled at Lana and moved out of the way to let the girls spar.

As Katara and Lana got into their stances, they both looked across at each other with playful glares in their eyes. Neither of them dared to make the first move, just waiting for the other like both of them were wolves waiting for their prey in the night.

Lana watched Katara’s eyebrows intently. She realized early on that Katara’s eyes were the signal that let Lana know when she was going to make a move.

Once she saw one of Katara’s brows twitch in anticipation, Lana got ready to defend as if she could see what was coming from a mile away.

Within a second, Katara slid one of her feet out and rapidly picked up a ball of water from the frozen ground with one hand. Her other hand started to whip frozen daggers across the arena.

Thinking on her feet, Lana waterbended up three water tentacles to toss aside the ice daggers as they came whizzing by. Her eyes almost bulged right out of their sockets when she had to move at the last second as one dagger came a little too close for comfort towards her face.

Standing back up a bit straighter, she gawked across the sparring circle and saw the smug smile that Katara was wearing.

 _'Oh… so she wants to play like that, does she? Fine, let’s go.'_ Lana sent her a confident smile right back.

Moving the tentacles down to the ground, Lana took a slight step back and wrapped the water around her shoulders. With both hands, she lunged forward and sent multiple water whips towards Katara, forcing her to dance with the water to avoid being hit.

In mid-air, Lana froze one of the water whips, but didn’t expect Katara to duck and slide right under. Changing up her attacks, Lana swirled the water coat around her shoulders back under her feet and pushed her arms behind her to propel her closer.

Watching what she was doing, Katara knew she had to hinder Lana’s wave. She bent over and pulled up enough water to spin around and hurl an ice projectile straight towards Lana, but was greatly disappointed when she saw her stop her movements to an abrupt halt to waterbend an ice wall that completely shattered her missile.

Lana took down her shield and started to direct ice spikes to knock her down, but Katara started to create frozen blocks of ice to jump onto.

Shaking her head while chuckling, Lana couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the first time she showed Katara that move back in her abandoned arena. Luckily, she knew how to counter it.

Skidding across the ice on her knees to get to Katara’s next ice block, Katara was about to land on it when Lana threw her arms out in front of her and brought them to her sides, forcing the ice block to follow her command.

Katara front rolled to avoid being pinned down. In a split second, she picked up some more water and formed another water whip to strike back at her.

Turning around to make Lana lose their fight, Katara let out a gasp when she saw that Lana already thought ahead, and created herself a long spear and held it close to Katara’s neck.

As they stared at each other completely out of breath, not knowing what to do next, Lana dropped her spear and started to hysterically laugh with Katara joining in on her cackling.

Out of nowhere, they heard all of the students, Pakku and Aang cheering in the background.

They both turned towards them and smiled. Lana reached out to grab Katara’s hand and lifted their hands in the air. They both bowed to their audience as if it was all a play.

After Katara and Lana stopped giggling at their duel, they flopped down onto the snowy ground to finally catch their breaths. “Katara, that was so awesome. You really have accomplished so much this past week just like Pakku said.”

“Thanks, Lana.” Katara swelled with pride. Not only did Master Pakku say this, but now, another Master was congratulating her on her skills and growth.

As they sat there, Katara was staring at Lana with a pensive look. Furrowing her eyebrows, Lana just had to ask, “What are you thinking about?”

Katara let out a soft sigh, “Listen… I don’t think I should be telling you this just yet, and I don’t know how your parents would feel about it, but… ” She took a quick glance around to see if anyone was listening. “Sokka, Aang and I were talking about it, and we want you to join us on our journey to take down the Fire Nation.”

“Wait… Really?!” Lana was shocked that they had even discussed the option of her joining them, but the idea of traveling the world and ending the war was something she couldn’t pass up. “Katara… That would be incredible!”

As she thought more about it, Lana quickly added, “As long as we bring Yue.”

Katara smiled and replied, “Of course Yue can come! We already talked about having both of you come with us. Plus… Do you really think Sokka would let us leave without her? ”

Lana covered her mouth with one of her hands as she started to laugh with her.

“Wow… I can’t believe you guys want us to join you… This is something I have always wanted, I really never thought I would leave this city.”

Hearing a roar high up in the sky, the girls looked up to see Appa flying overhead with Yue and Sokka. Even on the ground, Lana grinned from ear to ear and could only imagine how happy Yue was.

As Katara started to speak again, Lana couldn’t help but look over at Aang rolling around in circles around Momo and think about all the endless possibilities and fun that she and Yue would have with them.

“Believe me Lana, I thought the same thing before Sokka and I found Aang in the iceberg… Even then, I had no idea we would leave until that awful Fire Nation P-”

Out of nowhere, Katara was ripped out of what she was saying when black snow started to fall down all around them.

Lana let a couple of the black snowflakes fall onto her glove and narrowed her eyes. Glancing from her glove to Katara, Lana asked, “Uhh.. I’ve never seen anything like this before. What’s happening?”

Katara gasped and covered her mouth as she looked around. “It's the Fire Nation.”

As everyone soon figured out the Fire Nation was closing in to siege the Northern Water Tribe, a few of the guards ran up to the war tower and started banging on the tribal drums to alert and prepare the whole city.

Searching for Yue at the top of the stairs, Lana was anxiously looking around until she finally saw Sokka pulling Yue up to her.

She watched as Yue stopped him and took her hand away from his. Furrowing her eyebrows at what was going on, Lana regretfully was just standing there as Sokka and Yue started to have a serious conversation.

Trying to give both of them some privacy, Lana turned around as she waited for her twin. Unfortunately, she could hear the whole conversation.

She overheard Yue say, “No, Sokka, wait. I can’t see you anymore… Not at all.”

Lana winced as she heard the shock in Sokka’s voice. “What?! We’re just friends.”

“I wish we could just be friends, but I like you too much and it’s too confusing to be around you. I’m marrying someone.”

“You don't love him, do you?” Sokka sadly asked. “You don't even seem to like him.”

“But I do love my people… You don't understand. I have duties to my father, to my tribe. I have to do this! Goodbye.”

As Lana heard this come out of Yue’s mouth, she started to tear up knowing all of the sacrifices her sister has had to give up for their people, but hastily wiped her eyes as she heard Yue’s footsteps getting closer and closer.

Once Yue got all the way up, Lana reached out to grab her hand, but Yue ripped it away. “Lana, please… I just need a minute to be by myself.”

Letting Yue sprint away, she had to hold herself back from chasing after her. Lana turned back around as Sokka reached the top of the stairs.

He was visibly shaking with anger and confusion. As he looked for answers to all of his questions, Sokka couldn’t help but hiss, “Who is this guy anyways, Lana?”

She gave him a sad, knowing smile. “Trust me, knowing would only make things worse.”

As they stood there, Lana thought about what she could say or do that could make everything be okay, but in the end she wasn’t sure if that was even possible.

Lana sighed as she shook her head. “You, Sokka, are twice the man he is. Just from knowing you from such a short amount of time, I can see how genuine you are and how much you truly would do anything for Yue… If Yue was marrying you, I would be honored to call you my brother-in-law.”

Despite how angry he was about Yue's engagement, Sokka gave her a half smile. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Lana grinned at him before she decided to try and lighten the heavy topic of marriage. “That way I could also tease you way more than already.”

Sokka crossed his arms and chuckled. “Hey, that would mean I can finally get back at you for pranking me all the time.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah… don’t bet on that. I would be able to see them coming from a mile away.”

After they both giggled, Lana placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know that you’re still upset, but we’ll figure something out. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect Yue, no matter how dangerous or stupid it is, and I can tell you would do the same. We’re fighters, we gotta stick together.”

“Thanks, Lana…That means more than you know.” Sokka said with a grateful smile.

“Of course, Sokka. Now I have to go find Yue, I’ll see you when my father announces the siege defense plans.” With that, Lana ran into the palace in pursuit of finding her twin.

Running through the halls, Lana couldn’t find Yue anywhere until she crept up close to the ballroom and heard sniffles behind a hidden frozen doorway that they always used to hide in when they were little.

“Yue?” Lana quietly tapped on the door. “Can we please talk?”

As she pressed her ear against the door, she heard her sister quietly mutter, “Come in, Lana.”

When she opened the door, Lana’s heart felt like it dropped to the floor as she saw how upset her sister was. “Yue…” Lana knelt down to hold her tightly. “Everything’s going to be fine, okay?”

“No, it’s not Lana… What am I supposed to do?” Yue cried into her twin’s shoulder. “I just… I feel so heartbroken. Sokka probably hates me now anyways.”

“Listen, he couldn’t hate you even if he tried. You're the best, Yue. I know it, Sokka knows it, everyone else does too. We’re going to figure it out. I promise, we…. we can… ”

Yue looked to Lana with watery eyes. Seeing her like this made her want to burst into tears, but just like all of those years ago, she remembered the push and pull of being a twin. When one is upset, the other must be the calming water.

“You know what I think?” Lana said as she wiped Yue’s tears away. “I think we can work this out as long as we do it together. We just gotta get through this battle, and the rest will fall into place.”

Yue smiled up to Lana as she thought more about it. “You really think so?”

Lana chuckled as she heard Yue’s slight optimism. “Trust me, Yue, we are in this together forever. There’s no one who could stop us.”

As they laughed together in the hidden closet, Lana and Yue wrapped their arms around each other. Lana whispered, “I promise everything is going to be okay.”

Suddenly, they heard the tribal drums in the ballroom start to be played. Lana stood up and helped Yue to her feet.

After the twins shared one more sad smile, they took one last deep breath before they made their way to sit with their family on the frozen stage.

Walking up to sit in front of their tribe, the twins walked by Soma, Arnook and Pakku as they took their rightful places.

After the whole tribe gathered and grew quiet, Arnook stood up to present his and the Council’s battle plan. “The day we have feared for so long has arrived. The Fire Nation is on our doorstep. It is with great sadness I call my family here before me, knowing well that some of these faces are about to vanish from our tribe. They will never vanish from our hearts.”

Yue and Lana glanced at each other, but looked back forward and put on brave faces.

“Now, as we approach the battle for our existence, I call upon the great Spirits. Spirit of the Ocean, Spirit of the Moon, be with us!”

As their father asked for volunteers for a dangerous mission, the twins watched as Sokka shot up in the crowd and yelled, “Count me in!”

Lana shot him a questioning yet angry look while her father continued his speech. Thinking back on their conversation, she didn’t think he would take it so much to heart to offer himself up like this.

As Chief Arnook finished his speech by warning the group of warriors that many of them would not return, Sokka walked up to the front of the ice stage. Arnook dipped his fingers into red warrior paint and dragged them vertically down Sokka’s forehead. When Sokka started to walk away, he turned back to have one last glance at Yue.

Lana watched them as they sadly looked at each other as if they were having a silent conversation. Yue turned her head away from him and tried to hold it together as she clenched her eyes as tight as she could, but a few tears slid down her face.

Trying to ease Yue’s pain at Sokka’s decision, Lana reached out to take her hand and squeezed it in solidarity. She couldn’t help but feel guilty for thinking she had a part to play in Sokka risking his life for them and for their tribe.

As Lana, Katara and Arnook walked outside of the palace to prepare for the attacks, they saw Aang crouching on a water column while he looked out to the city entrance.

Arnook joined him in glancing over the city and said, “The stillness before battle is always unbearable. Such a quiet dread.” Lana grabbed his hand in her own as she took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

They all looked at Aang as he made a promise to them. “I wasn’t there when the Fire Nation attacked my people… I’m going to make a difference this time.”

With that, they all made their way to the front wall. Just as Lana reached the stairs, Yue grabbed Lana’s hand. “Lana, please, don’t go!”

Lana took a step back to see the worried look Yue had on her face.

She gave her a sad smile and softly said, “I have to go… But don’t worry, I’ll come back for you.” Lana placed a hand on Yue’s cheek. “I will always come back.”

When Yue nodded her head, Lana turned around and ran to catch up to Sokka, Katara and all of the Northern warriors to wait for the battle on the frozen gate.

There was nothing but silence.

As all of the warriors stood on the wall, Lana mentally sent out a quick prayer to the spirits to watch over them as they were about to fight for their lives.

Suddenly, there was a bright ball of light in the sky. Lana lifted her hand above her eyes to block the sun and see what in the spirits it was, but when she realized what it was, it was too late.

A massive fireball blasted directly into the front wall and sent everyone flying off with screaming and cries being heard all around Lana.

She was instantly buried under piles of snow when she heard Sokka from above scream, “Katara! Lana!”

After a second of figuring out her surroundings, Lana threw her hand up and waterbended the snow out of her way to crawl out. She quickly scanned around the area to see Sokka and Katara running up to her.

Looking up in the sky, Lana watched as a dozen more fire blasts came skyrocketing all across the front of the city. Sharing a look with Katara, they both nodded to each other and immediately moved into action. Working together, they waterbended the frozen ground to pools of water next to them.

As she looked back up into the sky, Lana saw a blast coming straight for them. “Katara, now!”

They quickly moved simultaneously together, as they brought their arms from the pools of water up towards the fireblast and clenched their fists at the last second. An iceberg spike erupted into the air, stopping the fireblast from harming them or anyone around them.

As fast as she could, Lana unfroze the iceberg and started to spin to pull herself up into a water tornado.

Having the advantage of being up in the air, Lana watched as another blast was heading towards the palace. As she spun in the waterspout, she pushed her arms out towards the fire blast and sent water jets to extinguish it.

Turning towards the front gate, Lana propelled the water tornado to drop her off at the last remaining pieces of the wall. As she stood at the top, Lana turned around to see where Aang was battling the Fire Nation ship.

Gasping for air, Lana couldn’t breath as she saw at least one hundred ships making their way to their city. She immediately turned around to find Katara and the other waterbenders fighting on the ground.

“Katara! Get up here!”

Katara followed the voice up and gawked at Lana. She hastily turned back to Sokka as they told each other to be careful. Sokka instantly ran to meet with the other warriors to prepare for Arnook’s dangerous mission, as Katara ran to the front wall.

Making it easier for Katara, Lana took water from the remaining wall and waterbended a water whip around both of their hands and yanked as hard as she could to pull Katara all the way up.

As Lana heard her gasp at how many ships were in front of them, she nodded her head as Katara looked back at her.

Narrowing their eyes at each other and silently agreeing on fighting the Fire Nation ships to the end, they started gathering ocean water and propelled ice spikes up to incoming fire blasts.

They battled for what felt like hours until suddenly, the fire blasts stopped coming. Lana and Katara keeled over with their hands on their knees trying to catch their breaths.

As Lana stood back up, she furrowed her brows to see what was now coming their way. Before she could even register what it was, Katara saw Appa flying through the air on his way back to the city. “C’mon, Lana! We have to get to Aang!”

They immediately waterbended themselves down the wall and ran up the city stairs to where Yue was.

As Lana ran into Yue’s arms, thankful they were both okay, the girls turned around to see Appa landing on the ground.

“Aang!” Katara yelled as the three girls rushed to him and Appa.

Aang slid off of Appa and grabbed his head with both of his hands. “I can’t do it… I can’t do it.”

Finally getting over to him, Katara asked, “What happened?!”

He looked scared out of his mind and couldn’t help but tremble when he looked up to the girls with wide eyes. “I must have taken out a dozen Fire Navy ships, but there were just too many of them.” He looked away in fear. “I can’t fight them all.”

Yue held her hands together as she pleaded, “But you have to. You’re the avatar.”

“I’m just one kid.”, Aang sadly muttered as he tucked his head against his crossed arms resting on his knees.

Hearing this, Katara leaned down to comfort Aang while Lana and Yue looked at each other in fear and grabbed onto each other.

~On Zhao’s Ship~

As Zuko wrapped his rope around in circles and prepared to capture the Avatar, he couldn’t help but look out to the city he once believed was his special place as a child.

All of the memories of being with the Northern Water Tribe flashed through his mind even if him and his father tried to erase them from his memory.

He hated how much the memories that stuck out the most were always with Lana. As he tried to rip her out of his thoughts, he thought back to the first time he really got to know her when he caught her climbing up the palace wall.

Even in such a small body back then, Lana’s fierceness and dauntless attitude had always perplexed him into trying to be more brave. The way she carried herself so confidently and wanting nothing to hold her back made him proud to have her as a best friend.

Zuko winced as he corrected himself, _it used to make him proud to have her as a best friend_. She always knew exactly what to say and what to do when he was being a ‘hothead’ as she called it.

But now? Zuko couldn’t stop himself from thinking about how much he had changed over the past six years without her. He wondered how she had changed too.

He started to quietly chuckle to himself because knowing Lana, she was probably more fearless and wild than before. That’s something he admired about her, the way she believed in herself and what she thought was right versus wrong.

Even if she was wrong sometimes… Her stubbornness made his stubbornness run away in fear.

All of the sudden, the door to the ship cabin creaked open wrenching him from his thoughts of Lana. Glancing over his shoulder, Zuko watched as Iroh quickly shut the door behind him.

Iroh calmly placed his hands in front of him. “If you are fishing for an octopus, my nephew, you need a tightly woven net or he will squeeze through the tiniest hole and escape.”

With one last look out to the city, Zuko dropped his shoulders. “I don’t need your wisdom right now, Uncle.”

“I’m sorry, I just nag you because… Well, ever since I lost my son… ” Iroh turned away to hold back his tears.

Turning back to look away from side-eyeing Iroh, Zuko clenched his eyes tight. “Uncle, you don’t have to say it.”

“I think of you as my own.”

Hearing this, Zuko spun around and sadly looked at Iroh. Bowing to him, he said, “I know, Uncle. We’ll meet again… ” Iroh jumped on him for one last hug. “After I have the Avatar.”

As Zuko climbed into the small canoe, Iroh whispered, “And, what if you see the twins? What if you see Princess Lana?”

Hearing her name spoken out loud after such a long time, Zuko winced and looked down at the ocean. “It won’t matter if I do. I need to focus on my mission.”

Taking the ropes holding up the canoe, Zuko held onto them and was about to start his descent when Iroh walked a few feet to give him some last second advice. “Remember your breath of fire, it could save your life out there.”

As he loosened his grip on the rope, Zuko and the canoe started traveling down the side of the ship. “I will.”

Iroh leaned out the ship and whisper yelled, “And put your hood up, keep your ears warm!”

Zuko whisper yelled right back, “I’ll be fine!”

When the canoe hit the water, he paddled his way towards the Northern city with one last deep breath.

Although Zuko tried to concentrate on his strategy to find the Avatar, Iroh’s question couldn’t stop playing over and over again in his mind.

_‘What if I see Lana?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please accept the beginning of this chapter as fluff and hurt/comfort before I post the rest of the Siege of the North :)
> 
> Sokka & Lana's conversation of Yue's engagement was inspired by @Beebeetypes's comment in a past chapter. If you haven't checked out her work, please do! She is the absolute best! 
> 
> Let me know what you think! I always love seeing everyone's comments and suggestions. Next chapter should be posted this weekend. Thanks for reading!!


	18. The Siege of the North: Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up before you start to read, there will be a Part III of The Siege of the North. 
> 
> TW: Mentions of violence and blood

All around the icy fortress, smells of charcoal and explosives rotted in the air. Within the very heart of the tribe, smoke rose from the destruction up into the night sky. The bridges connecting people to each other had fallen to pieces, with the water underneath them as black as coal. 

Out in the ocean, the Fire Nation ships floated along the waves, acting as a reminder that the tyrants inside of those warships were just teasing the city like it was playing with its food; Threatening the people within like they were just caged animals.

The silence of the Northern Water Tribe after the first siege battle was deafening. Yet somehow, the destruction was screeching in Lana’s ears. 

As she stared at the damage of her home, Lana felt anger rise into her chest. 

Moving her head to glare at what the Fire Nation had done within hours of them arriving at their shores, her heart started to melt as she began to reminisce on what the city looked like only this morning. 

She clenched her eyes as tight as she could, mentally trying to imagine what it was supposed to look like; _Burning the memories of her home into her brain to stop the new ones of the damage from forming_. 

Despite her efforts, Lana’s fury continued to grow. She slowly opened her eyes to glance at Katara, Aang and Yue, and watched as they all overlooked the city from the palace balcony. 

No one said a word as each of them took in the destruction. 

Attempting to calm herself down, Lana followed Yue’s gaze up into the clouds to look at the full moon. 

Yue could feel the aggressive tension in her twin’s demeanor and took her hand in her own. She felt the pressure of Lana’s anger slowly start to dissipate from her tense body. 

The four of them stood there as they tried to rack their brains on how to defeat the Fire Nation’s attempt to siege the city. 

After her initial anger started to melt away, Lana couldn’t stop herself from anxiously glancing from the destroyed wall to Aang, praying that the Avatar would figure out a way to save them all. 

She furrowed her brows as if she was trying to telepathically send him ideas, despite the fact she had none. She stared at him and saw that he held a discouraged frown while hunched over on the balcony edging with his chin resting on his arms.

Ripping Lana out of her silent pleas, Yue tried to comfort them all by sharing the tales of the Water Nation, hoping to create inspiration between the four of them. “The legends say the moon was the first waterbender. Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides, and learned how to do it themselves.”

A look of realization washed over Katara. “I’ve always noticed my waterbending is stronger at night.” 

After hearing these legends her whole life, Lana nodded her head towards Katara. She looked out towards the water and continued to explain their tribe’s legends. “Our strength comes from the Spirit of the Moon, our life comes from the Spirit of the Ocean. They work together to keep balance.”

Out of nowhere, Aang’s eyes bulged out of his head as a smile appeared on his face. “The Spirits!” He gasped and bolted upright. “Maybe I can find them and get their help!” 

Yue and Lana turned towards him out of shock and simultaneously asked, “How can you do that?”

“The Avatar is the bridge between our world and the Spirit world, Aang can talk to them.” Katara explained as she looked from one twin to the other.

The twins glanced at each other with hope in their eyes. Yue turned back towards Aang as she clasped her hands together with optimism in her voice. “Maybe they'll give you the wisdom to win this battle!”

“Or, maybe they’ll unleash a crazy amazing spirit attack on the Fire Nation!” Aang threw his arms out in excitement.

Even though Lana liked the way he thought it through, she still shared a bafflingly look with Yue and Katara. The girls then gawked at Aang with quirked eyebrows.

Realizing that’s not exactly what Yue meant, Aang put his hands on his hips and shook off his embarrassment. “Or wisdom, that’s good, too.”

“But Aang…” Katara hesitated for a second before she asked, “The only problem is last time you got to the Spirit world by accident. How will you get there this time?” 

Lana quickly smirked at Yue as they silently nodded in agreement on what to do next. Instantly taking Yue’s hand in her own, the twins yelled, “We have an idea. Follow us!” 

  
  


After they rushed through the city, the twins finally found what they were looking for; The Spirit Oasis entrance. 

Yue took one side of the doorway while Lana got on the other as they both turned around to watch Katara and Aang run up behind them.

Out of pure optimism this was going to be way easier done than imagined, Aang creased his forehead. “So, is this the way to the Spirit World?” 

Trying not to full on laugh at him, the twins giggled and covered their mouths. 

As Lana playfully shook her head, she opened the Spirit Oasis door while Yue answered, “No, you’ll have to get there on your own. But we can take you to the most spiritual place in the entire North Pole.” 

Lana let Aang through the doorway and leaned in to see his reaction. 

He couldn’t help but gasp as he looked around the majestic place, taking in the pools of water surrounding a circular realm of grass, trees, and flowers with a waterfall gushing behind it. Aang looked a little further to gawk at the grassy land that encompassed a small pond. 

As she watched his reaction, Lana slowly started to grin, knowing how amazed he must’ve been at seeing the place for the first time. 

Katara and Yue followed right after Aang as he started to run around the Oasis while Lana got through and immediately shut the down behind her. 

As he airbended himself towards the greenery and laughed in enjoyment, the girls all glanced at each other and happily raced after him. He hopped onto the grass and ran his fingers through the ground. “I never thought I would miss grass this much!”

Katara looked around, completely bewildered by the area. “It’s so warm here, how is that possible?”

“It's the center of all spiritual energy in our land.” Yue explained as the twins watched Katara take off her parka. Instantly, Lana chuckled in amusement, and followed Katara in taking off her parka, leaving both of them in their Water Tribe robes.

As Lana was enjoying the beauty of the oasis, Yue elbowed her in her side and tilted her head towards Momo trying to pick up the koi fish in the pond. 

While Yue and Katara crossed their arms and frowned at Momo in disappointment, Lana took a quick inhale of air and scolded, “No, Momo!” 

She reached down to pick him up and shook her fingers at him. Momo’s ears flopped down and looked like a polar bear dog with its tail in between its legs as he jumped and scurried away from the girls. 

“You’re right, Yue. I can feel… something.” Aang calmly smiled from across the oasis pond. “It’s so… tranquil.” 

Focusing back on why they were there, he promptly sat down under the oasis’s wooden archway and touched both of his fists together in front of chest.  
  
  


~Back in the NWT Palace~

Crouching on the ground as he seethed with anger and frustration, Sokka sharpened his boomerang and tried not to explode from being kicked off the mission. Even though he basically tried to strangle Yue’s jerk of a fiancé, he knew that Lana would’ve approved… Even if their father didn’t. 

Arnook walked through the room and noticed Sokka brooding on the floor. “Is something wrong, Sokka?”

Sokka looked over his shoulder and attempted to control his face from showing how upset he was. Too bad his voice held all of his annoyance instead. 

He sarcastically snapped, “Oh, no... Hahn’s out there on a top secret mission, while I’m here sharpening my boomerang.” Sokka lifted up his boomerang to inspect it, but immediately dropped his shoulders in disappointment. “Everything’s fine.”

Arnook stepped forward and confessed, “Listen to me, Sokka. I took you off the mission for selfish reasons, I have a special task in mind for you.” 

Whipping around, Sokka mockingly suggested, “What, you want me to scrub the barracks?”

“I want you to guard my daughter, Princess Yue.” 

Jumping up in excitement, Sokka tried not to show how happy he was with that offer and gave a half shrug. “Oh… Sure, that shouldn’t be too hard.”

Arnook smiled at Sokka’s answer before he added, “I know she will probably give you a run for your money, but I would like you to protect my daughter, Princess Lana as well.”

“Yeah…” Sokka scratched his head. “That one might be a bit harder to accomplish.” 

Arnook placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded in agreement before leaving him in the room alone. 

Sokka smiled at the thought of being able to spend more time with Yue, but his grin was soon replaced by a frown at the thought of either of the twins being harmed during the Fire Nation raids.

  
  
  
~Under the Northern Water Tribe City~

As he finally reached the end of the water tunnel, Zuko jumped out of the freezing water, completely out of breath. Panting for air in the underground ice cave, he immediately felt the bitter air start to attack his soaking wet body. 

He shakily turned on his side, and breathed out puffs of fire to try and warm himself. With the seal turtles loudly barking around him, Zuko’s annoyance started to skyrocket. 

“Be quiet!” He snarled as he picked himself off the ground. 

Now determined more than ever, Zuko shoved the seal turtles aside and made his way to his next strategy to get into the city. He walked up to water pouring out of a hole and immediately kicked his foot into an empty spot around the rocky, frozen edging. 

Sucking in a deep breath, he climbed through the hole and made his way to the top. As he swam all the way up, Zuko realized it was frozen shut and repeatedly banged on the ice. 

Panic and fear soon started to take hold of Zuko’s mind as he let out some of his air under the water. Thinking on his feet, he quickly placed his hands on the frozen covering and firebended the ice to escape. 

Gasping for air, he choked on the sucked in water and caught his breath. As he looked up to see where he was, he gulped with wide eyes. 

Even if he hadn’t been there for six years, all of the memories spent within the tribe raced through his mind yet again. He gazed up to the palace and felt his heart drop to his stomach. A sickening thought dashed through his brain.

_'She would be so ashamed of you right now.'_

Forcing himself to look away and drop _her_ from his mind, Zuko reminded himself what his mission was and that no one, not even Lana, would stand in the way of him accomplishing it. 

He dragged himself out of the frozen tunnel to search and capture the Avatar. 

  
  
  
~Back in the Spirit Oasis~

Staring at Aang’s back, Lana tilted her head to the side in confusion of what was going on. As she slid her eyes over to Yue, she telepathically asked her if something should be happening. 

Reading Lana’s mind, Yue glanced at Katara and quietly whispered, “Why is he sitting like that?”

“He’s meditating.” Katara whispered back. “He’s trying to cross over into the Spirit world. It takes all his concentration.”

Lana chimed in, “Well… Is there anything we can do to help? Is he already there?”

Suddenly, Aang threw out his hands in annoyance and shouted, “How about some quiet?!” Turning around to glare at the girls, he couldn’t stop himself from yelling, “Come on, guys, I can hear every word you’re saying!” 

Sheepishly looking at each other, the girls recoiled and apologetically peeked back at Aang when they noticed his entranced change of mood as he stared at the oasis pond. 

Wrenching the girls out of their confusion, Lana and Yue jumped back when Aang’s tattoos and eyes started to glow bright white. 

Jerking her eyes away from him to Katara, Lana hovered her hand over her mouth and asked, “Is he okay?” 

“He’s crossing into the spirit world. He’ll be fine as long as we don’t move his body.” Katara mused as she couldn’t take her eyes off of Aang’s back. “That’s his way back to the physical world.”

“Maybe we should get some help?” Yue justified as she stepped away towards the direction of Oasis door. 

Katara shook her head and smiled at Yue’s nervousness. “No, he’s my friend.” Looking back at Aang, her smile turned into a straight line. “I’m perfectly capable of protecting him.” 

Out of nowhere, a new voice echoed throughout the Oasis. “Well, aren’t you a big girl now?”

Katara gasped as she heard the voice. “No…” She whipped her head around to see Zuko stalking across the oasis bridge. 

Sensing the immediate danger, Lana grabbed Yue’s hand and pulled her towards the Oasis exit. Thinking as fast as she could, she knew she had to sprint away and get Yue to safety. 

As soon as he heard Katara, Zuko stepped off the bridge and hissed, “Yes.” 

He hesitated as he caught a glimpse of black hair with a white strip dragging Yue behind her. 

Shaking his head and thinking his mind was just playing games on him, Zuko narrowed his eyes at Katara and demanded, “Hand him over and I won’t have to hurt you.”

  
  
  


When she heard Katara’s battle cries, Lana glanced over her shoulder to see her holding her own against the firebender. She turned back around and continued to rush towards the Spirit Oasis doorway, dragging Yue behind her. 

As soon as they got to the exit, Lana whipped open the door. ”Go find Sokka and bring him back here! We don’t have much time!”

Yue furrowed her eyebrows and begged, “Lana, please come with me! Let’s get Sokka together!”

Lana placed a hand on her shoulder. “I have to go protect Aang’s body while Katara fights that firebending jerk. I’ll be here when you come back, don’t worry. Now go!”

As Yue ran out the door, rays of sunlight started to come through the Spirit Oasis canopy. Standing back up, Lana rushed back to see how Katara was handling the Fire Nation soldier.

Right across from the bridge, Lana snapped her head around the oasis to find Katara unconscious, laying on the ground. She instantly felt rage at seeing her hurt because of this monster. 

Just as she was about to look around for him, she saw the firebender slowly walk up to Katara as he seethed, “You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun.”

Watching him turn to get closer to Aang, Lana gritted her teeth and sprung into action.

As she jumped out of the shadows, she pulled up water from the pond and propelled a massive jet stream to knock the soldier over.

“Where do you think you’re going, drama queen?” Lana said as she shook her head and put her hands on her hips, slightly taking pleasure out of the soaking wet firebender laying out on his back in front of her. 

Slowly trying to figure out what in the Agni just happened to him, Zuko sat up on his elbows and choked when he saw Lana a few feet away from him. 

Time felt like it moved in slow motion as he felt so many emotions all at once. 

Even if he wanted to scream at her for attacking him, Zuko’s eyes instantly softened as he took in how much she had grown and changed over the past six years. 

He just couldn’t control or stop himself from thinking of how beautiful she looked in the morning sunlight with such a fierce smirk like she always used to. ‘ _Good to see some things didn’t change.’_

Just as Zuko was about to just blurt out her name in happiness, he noticed the unfamiliar look she held. Fear and shame quickly took over his face as he realized that Lana didn’t recognize him. 

_‘My scar…’_ He mused as he unconsciously touched his marked eye. 

Getting up on his feet, Zuko stepped closer as he tried to plead with her. “Please! I don’t want to hurt you!”

Lana took in the firebender and creased her eyebrows as she thought she remembered that glint of bronze shimmers in the boy's eyes. She forced herself to quickly rid the thought of _him_ entering her mind. 

Rolling her eyes at the soldier, Lana moved her arm to point to Katara and Aang as she yelled, “You just attacked my friend, and you’re trying to take my other friend!” 

She quickly moved into a defensive stance. “So if you’re going to do it, you’ll have to go through me first.”

“Please…” Zuko begged. “I have to do this!”

“No!” She screamed as she rapidly picked up water to circle around herself. “Leave Aang alone!”

Hearing her talk about the Avatar sitting on the ground a few feet away from them like this made his blood absolutely boil.

He looked away from her as his rage started to build up throughout his whole body. 

“Fine…” He glanced back up and narrowed his eyes at her. “If this is how you want it to go, then you leave me no choice.”

Immediately, Zuko leapt off the ground and kicked out streams of fire towards her and aimed out balls of fire through his fists. 

Taking the water circle surrounding her body, Lana pulled the water in front of her and raised her arms up to form a frozen shield before the raging flames could get to her. 

Feeling her wrath explode inside of her, she unleashed her anger and started punching the frozen wall to shoot ice shards at him.

Zuko gasped as he saw her ambush onslaught coming straight for him. He quickly jumped and darted in between the spaces of her attacks. 

As he tried to dodge the frozen bullets, he misstepped and loudly yelped in pain. He looked down at his upper arm and saw blood start to trickle down into his clothes. 

Clenching his fists by his sides, he unconsciously formed fire daggers with malicious intent. Zuko glared back up at her as a spiteful idea raced through his mind. 

He quickly remembered how Lana wasn’t as good as he was in hand to hand combat when they were kids.

Hoping this was still true, he stalked towards her.

Quickly taking down her ice shield, Lana gasped and stepped back as she watched him try to get closer to her.

As fast as she could, Lana threw her hands out in front of her and pulled two tentacles from the ground by his sides. Grabbing both of his hands, she extinguished his fire daggers and controlled the tentacles with all of her might, and held his arms to the ground where he stood. 

Without breaking her concentration, she hastily walked closer and closer to him to finally knock him out. 

He quickly started to panic as he looked from his hands to Lana, trying to figure out a way to stop her.

One thought rushed into his mind that he knew would break her focus.

“Lana!” Zuko yelled. “It’s me!” 

Stopping her in her tracks, Lana’s eyes almost fell out of her head. 

Feeling like she was just punched in the gut, she staggered back as she panted and placed one hand on her chest and her other hand on her stomach with the water tentacles dropping to the ground. 

With the pressure of the tentacles not controlling him anymore, Zuko fell to his hands and knees before her. 

“Zu… Zuko?” Lana quietly whispered out of pure shock. 

Taking all of his strength to look up at her, Zuko held his breath and moved his eyes from the ground to her face.

A million thoughts raced through Lana’s mind as she took in the firebender on the ground in front of her. After the first wave of shock washed over her, she took a step forward to get a better look at him.

A faint smile crept onto her face as she looked him over until a frown appeared on her lips as she saw all of the cuts on his forehead and a dark bruise under one of his eyes. Her eyes finally landed on the burn mark covering his left eye. 

As Lana stepped closer to him, she trembled and sadly whispered, “Wh-What happened to you, Zuko?” 

Zuko jutted his head to the left in shame, not wanting to hear her pity. As he clenched his eyes as tight as he could, he didn’t even bother to give his past best friend an answer. 

Lana shook her head out of confusion as she soon got back to the matter at hand. 

“Wait…” Lana quietly said as she glanced from Aang sitting on the ground back to Zuko. 

She narrowed her eyes at him as she demanded an answer to her question this time around. 

“What in the spirits are you doing trying to take Aang?!” 

Without saying a word, Zuko shot her a hostile glare and side eyed the Avatar. 

Dropping her shoulders in realization, Lana felt like she was stuck in the middle of a hurricane.

Her disgust in his intent to capture not only her friend, but the only person in the world to truly have a chance to end the war erupted in her stomach. 

With all of her rage, Lana screamed, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you doing this?” She stalked towards him and pointed her finger at him in shame. “How could you do this?”

Trying to block out her questions, Zuko started to shake his head back and forth.

As she kept shouting at him, he repeatedly whispered, “Stop it, Lana… I have to do this… I have to do this.”

“This is not who you are!” Lana yelled. “This is not the Zuko I used to know! Why would you want to take away the world’s only chance at peace?!”

Zuko’s boiling point skyrocketed as he shot up in the air and punched out a fire blast right at her. 

As her eyes went wide out of shock, Lana quickly pulled up some water to protect herself from the flames, but the power behind the blast sent her straight into the opposite wooden pole from Katara, with her landing on her stomach. 

As she laid on the ground unconscious, Zuko looked from his fists to her while he started to uncontrollably shake. 

As his adrenaline escaped his body, he dropped to his knees out of self-hatred for what he just did. 

He slowly started to crawl towards her. Trembling as he reached out to her, he cried, “No.. no…" He gently rolled her over onto her back. "Lana, I’m so sorry.”

Mortified by his own actions, he looked down at her and couldn’t believe that this was how their reunion went. He had dreamt about this moment ever since Azula told him he would never be able to see her ever again.

Making sure she was still breathing, Zuko placed two fingers on the side of Lana’s neck, but gasped and jumped back when he saw the golden necklace he gave her all of those years ago still clasped around her neck. 

He felt tears start to grow in his eyes as he screamed in agony up into the sky.

All those years ago, he personally swore to himself that if anyone ever hurt Lana, they would have to deal with him, just like she promised him that she would never take off his golden necklace. 

He closed his eyes as he thought, _‘One of us kept their promise, while the other… just broke theirs._ ’

Now, the guilt and shame that built up in his heart poured over as the realization of him being the one to hurt her the most felt like being hit with a ton of bricks. 

Weakly getting back up to his feet, Zuko dragged himself over to the Avatar and threw him onto his back. 

  
  
Bolting upright and wheezing for air, Katara looked at where Aang was sitting, but couldn’t find him anywhere. “Aang!” She screamed as she stood up. 

With no luck finding him, she turned around and saw Lana laying on the ground, knocked unconscious. “Lana!” 

As fast as she could, Katara jumped over to her and shook her awake. 

While Lana started to wake up from being knocked out, Katara helped her sit up and watched as she winced in pain. 

Suddenly, the girls looked up into the sky as Appa came through the Oasis canopy with Sokka on his head and Yue in his saddle. Sokka jumped off Appa and sprinted over to the girls while Yue immediately threw herself to the ground to hug Lana, thanking the spirits that she was alright. 

“What happened?!” Sokka asked as he quickly looked around to search for Aang.

“Zuko took Aang…" Katara dropped her shoulders in shame. "He took him right from under us.” 

As soon as she heard Katara say his name, Yue gasped and shot her eyes back to her twin.

Feeling Yue’s eyes on her, Lana stopped herself from tearing up and slowly nodded to confirm Yue’s unspoken question.

As she watched Yue’s face show her disbelief and despair, Lana’s lips curled into a sneer as she mentally decided right then and there, she would push her sadness down to let anger take its rightful place. She hissed in her mind, _‘Now, we really are enemies.’_

The twins focused back on Katara and Sokka as they overheard Sokka ask, “But… Where did they go?”

  
  
  
  


Right above them, Zuko carried Aang through the frozen tundra as he tried to keep his tears back from just hurting one of the most important people in his life. 

He closed his eyes as he realized a sickening truth. _‘At least she used to be one of those people…_ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Cue another round of internal screaming*
> 
> Thanks for reading as always!! Let me know what you think of this chapter, and Zuko and Lana's reunion. 
> 
> Next chapter will be the end of the Siege of the North and will be posted ASAP!


	19. The Siege of the North: Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of violence 💔

As they heard the fire blasts rupture throughout the city, Lana and Yue held onto each other, feeling the vibrations quake through the ground. 

Yue helped Lana to her feet as she whispered under her breath, “I just can’t believe Zuko would do something like this…”

Overhearing this, Sokka turned towards them and threw out his arms. “Wait, wait, wait… You guys know Zuko?!”

Before Yue could even explain, Lana cut her off and harshly snapped, “We used to. We don’t know him anymore.”

Sokka glanced from twin to twin, and saw Yue give him a sad frown and a small nod, trying to tell him that they will talk about it later. 

Throwing away the thought of how Lana answered Sokka’s question was strange for another time, Katara refocused on their whole problem. She just couldn’t get past how Zuko just took her best friend. 

“I can't believe we lost him.” Tearing up, Katara dropped to her knees on the ground.

Turning towards Katara, Lana’s shoulders slumped in defeat from hearing Katara’s pain in her voice for losing Aang. 

She wrenched her eyes to the ground as she felt more and more furious at Zuko and his stupidity. 

Lana closed her eyes as she realized that maybe it was her own naive trust in someone she used to know. 

She felt absolutely blinded by him. 

Lana bared her teeth and clenched her fists as she promised herself, ‘ _Never again… I will never let him hurt one of us a second time.’_

Yue saw the rage on Lana’s face and immediately sensed what she was feeling. 

Betrayed. 

She reached out to Lana and intertwined their hands together, attempting to calm her wrath down as much as she could without saying a word. Even if she felt the same way. 

As he felt Lana’s dark aura start to swell around them, Sokka shook his head and comforted, “You both did everything you could.” 

Determined to find their best friend, Sokka walked towards Appa. “And now we have to do everything we can do to get him back.” 

Yue let go of Lana’s hand to climb up Appa’s tail with Sokka hand in hand, while Lana took a deep breath to calm herself. 

“Zuko couldn’t have gotten far.” Sokka reasoned as he took Aang’s usual spot on Appa’s head. “We’ll find him… Aang’s going to be fine.” 

Glancing at Katara staring up at her brother, Lana’s heart tightened in her chest when she noticed her watery eyes. 

She walked over to Katara and held out a hand to help her up. With a small smile, Lana asked, “Together?” 

Katara looked up to her with hope in her eyes. She grabbed onto Lana’s hand and nodded her head. 

As the girls climbed up on Appa and threw their parkas back on, Lana nudged Katara’s side when she noticed how distraught Momo was that Aang was nowhere to be found. 

Katara looked down and offered, “It’s alright, Momo. You stay here in case Aang comes back.” 

With that, they were off to search for Aang. 

Now high up in the air, Lana clutched onto the saddle, with butterflies in her stomach as she realized it was her first time flying on Appa. 

Even if Lana was fuming from her rage at Zuko, she couldn’t help but slightly beam as she slowly lifted her arms off the saddle to absorb the wind through her parka.

The blizzard storm was whipping her in the face, but she could care less as she closed her eyes and treasured the freeing feeling of the wind through her hair. 

Overhearing chuckling, she whirled around to see Yue covering her mouth from all of her giggles. Lana playfully rolled her eyes and scooted up to snuggle with her twin before either one of them got too cold from the snow.

For that second of peace, everything was going to be okay. 

Then, battle cries and fire bombs blasted through the sky, yanking them away from their moment of bliss.

As the twins shared gloomy gazes at each other, Lana reached her arm around Yue’s shoulders as they both silently prayed to the Spirits to watch over their people. 

  
  


~Within the frozen tundra~

Dredging through the snow, Zuko stared straight ahead while trying not to think of everything that had just happened. 

He was on a mission and planned to see it all the way through. A thought echoed through his mind over and over again. 

‘ _I won’t fail again… Not this time.’_

As he stalked through the snow with Aang on his back, he took one more step and felt the frozen ground cracking under his feet. 

He narrowed his eyes at the ice before the whole path he just walked started to be engulfed in broken chunks, crashing into the underground frigid water. 

Starting to panic, Zuko gasped and sprinted as fast as he could before either of them could be taken under the water to drown. 

Right when he thought he wasn’t going to make it, he threw himself and the Avatar over a hill, and rolled to a stop. 

Looking back at the damage, he panted out of breath. 

Zuko turned back around to find the Avatar sprawled out when a cave came into view behind his body.

Practically freezing to the bone at this point, Zuko trembled, “Shelter”, and immediately grabbed Aang by his robes and hauled his body into the cave and out of the bitter blizzard. 

As he tied up Aang’s body with the thick rope he brought, Zuko’s mind started playing tricks on him as snippets of Lana and his reunion painfully ran through his mind. 

He winced as he played back the reflection of her getting thrown into that wooden pole. 

Feeling shameful as ever, Zuko grabbed his head with both hands as he tried to rip the flashbacks away from him. 

Shakily standing up, he sat across from the Avatar’s body.

As he puffed small bits of fire into his hands, Zuko stopped to think of how finally capturing the Avatar to bring home meant the war would be over, that the Fire Nation would’ve won… And that he would be welcomed back as the Crown Prince again.

Maybe, just maybe… He could find a way to apologize to Lana after the war for hurting her like he did back in the Oasis.

Zuko scoffed as he realized what an absolutely _horrible_ idea that was. 

Even without seeing her for six years, he knew Lana and her fury would probably kill him for even trying… 

Or she would just scream and yell at him straight into the Spirit World. At that moment, he really couldn’t decide which would be worse.

As he thought back on seeing her, he couldn’t help but admire how much she had advanced in her bending. 

He let out another harsh scoff. _‘Just another prodigy… Always has been, always will be.’_

Teetering himself out of his thoughts of Lana as best he could, Zuko glanced from the blizzard outside of the cave back to the Avatar tied up in the corner. 

“I finally have you, but I can't get you home because of this blizzard.” He growled as he pierced his eyes at the Avatar.

He stood up and tightly gripped his fists by his sides. “There's always something. Not that you would ever understand…”

Walking over to the entrance of the cave, he continued to feel his rage build up. “You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She's a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her.” 

Zuko paused and blew out some pent up hot air. “My father says she was born lucky, he says I was lucky to be born… I don't need luck, though, I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight.”

Glancing away from the frozen hell he brought them to, Zuko closed his eyes. “It's made me who I am.” 

Realizing a sad truth, he bitterly whispered, “Even if Lana can’t see that now.”

  
  


~On Zhao’s ship~

As they watched their destruction of the Northern Water Tribe rip through the city from the warship, Zhao held a malicious grin at the sights. 

Taking in the damage as if he was doing it by his own hand. 

Iroh side-eyed him as he felt jolts of pain go off in his heart seeing the ruins of the place he used to be so fond of. 

He couldn’t help but fear for the royal family and his nephew as he continued to watch his people tear everything down in their war path. 

Iroh finally spoke up and reasoned, “I don’t need to remind you, but we have a time limit.” He glanced from the city to Zhao. “If we don’t defeat the Water Tribe before the full moon rises, they will be undefeatable. 

Zhao held his arms behind his back and puffed his chest out in pride. He nonchalantly responded, “I assure you, I have everything under control. I intend to remove the moon as a factor.”

“Remove the moon?” Iroh wrenched his head back in confusion. “How?”

At that moment, a teenager dressed in Fire Nation attire, so obviously not Fire Nation, ripped open the door and yelled, “Admiral Choi! Prepare to meet your doom!” 

Watching the boy sprint towards him with a spear, Iroh barely even moved as Zhao threw the mock of a warrior over the side of the ship, into the water below.

“As I was saying…” Zhao placed his hands on the railing and narrowed his eyes out to the city with a smirk. “Years ago, I learned a great and powerful secret… The identity of the Moon Spirit’s mortal form. 

Gaping at hearing his words, Iroh recoiled back. “What?!”

As Zhao explained how he found out the Moon and Ocean Spirit identities, Iroh began to shake his head back and forth, utterly shocked that the Admiral would even try such a dreadful plan to kill the Moon Spirit. 

Iroh quickly grew angry and furiously growled, “Zhao, the Spirits are not to be trifled with!”

Not even batting an eye, Zhao mockingly rolled his eyes at the old General. “Yes, yes, I know how you fear the Spirits. I heard rumours about your journey to the Spirit World, but these Water Spirits gave up their immortality to live in our world… And now they must suffer the consequences.”

  
  


~Back on Appa~

As they all searched the tundra, the girls huddled together and sat directly behind Sokka, trying their hardest to find Aang through the storm.

“Don’t worry.” Yue said to comfort them all. “Zuko can’t be getting too far in this weather.”

Katara turned her head away from the twins. “I’m not worried they’ll get away in the blizzard… I’m worried they won’t.”

“They aren’t going to die in this blizzard.” Sokka glanced over his shoulder at the girls, but hastily turned back to glare his eyes towards the ground. “If we know anything, it’s that Zuko never gives up. They’ll survive… And we’ll find them.”

Hearing the determination in his voice, Lana narrowed her eyes while she scouted for anything down on the ground. She clenched her teeth as she realized how much of a pain in the ass her past best friend had been to her new friends.

Bracing her hands harshly around Appa’s saddle, Lana promised herself that she would give him hell right back. ‘ _He has no idea who the hell he is dealing with now.’_  
  
  


After hours of flying around, something caught Katara’s eye. She followed a gleam of shining light that flew over them in the night sky. “Look! That’s got to be Aang!” 

With that, all four of them watched as the bright white light traveled down into a small cave. Sokka yelled, “Yip, Yip, Appa!”

Appa dove down towards the ground, and all four of them watched as Aang crawled like a caterpillar out of the cave with Zuko coming up right behind him to roughly pick him up.

Right before they landed, Katara turned towards Lana with revenge in her eyes. “Together?” 

Lana smirked and nodded in agreement. “Let’s do this.”

Once Appa landed on the frozen ground, Katara and Lana slid off and immediately got ready to take Zuko down. 

Zuko gawked across at Katara and side-eyed Lana. Guilt hit him in the face even when he barely looked at the resentful glare she sent him. 

He screamed over the blizzard to Katara, “Here for a rematch?”

Before Lana could even explode, Katara hissed while she swayed her arms out, “Trust us, Zuko, it’s not going to be much of a rematch.”

Zuko blasted a stream of fire straight towards Katara, but Lana quickly pulled her arms up to form a water shield, effectively blocking his flames from reaching her. 

Lana pivoted back to Zuko, ready to attack when she already saw that Katara had lifted him up into the air in a waterspout and grimly threw him back down to the ground. 

Feeling a little petty she wasn’t the one to put him in his place, Lana looked at Katara in annoyance, but started to quietly chuckle at seeing her face so full of anger and fierceness to protect Aang and get back at Zuko. 

Lana shook her head as she thought, ‘ _What idiot calls for a rematch against two waterbenders… in a blizzard?’_

She slapped her forehead from the second hand embarrassment she felt for him. ‘ _Probably only Zuko.’_

Sokka jumped off Appa and ran over to Aang to cut the ropes off with Aang grinning at him over his shoulder. Sokka couldn’t help himself as he admired the heavy duty rope Zuko brought with him. 

Aang rubbed his wrists and quickly took off the rest of the ropes wrapped around him. “We need to get to the Oasis! The Spirits are in trouble!”

As Aang airbended himself up to Appa’s head, everyone started to run back on. 

When Lana was at the bottom of his tail, she looked up to Yue’s face staring at Zuko’s unconscious body in the pile of snow. 

With that and her internal conflict battling in her mind, Lana dropped her shoulders in realization.

Even with all of her rage at Zuko bubbling over in her head, her heart was pulled into a different direction.

She started walking towards Zuko as she said, “We can’t just leave him out here like this.”

Sokka gawked at her like she was insane. “Wait, what, Lana?! Of course we can! C’mon, let’s go.”

Aang pensively looked over to her as he agreed, “No, Lana is right, Sokka.” He airbended himself off of Appa towards her. “If we leave him, he’ll die.”

Aang and Lana got on both sides of Zuko and dragged him up Appa’s tail while Sokka sarcastically muttered, “Yeah, yeah, this makes perfect sense! Let’s bring the guy that is constantly trying to kill us.”

Aang quickly jumped high up in the air and directed Appa to fly as fast as he could back towards the Oasis.

As they started to take flight, Lana couldn’t help but stare at Zuko now that she was so close to him at the back of the saddle. 

Lana grimaced at the god awful ponytail he grew out, and slowly reached out to move his hair out of his face. 

Despite her best efforts, her eyes began to soften at how much he had grown since the last time she saw him. 

Even with all of her anger with him in the past few hours, she _hated_ how much she had missed him over the years, just for everything to lead to this. 

Lana slowly reached out and was about to touch his face when out of nowhere, she heard, “Ahem”, right behind her. 

Whipping around at the noise, Sokka stood behind her with the ropes in his hands with a look that practically screamed, ‘ _What in the spirits are you doing?!_ ’ 

Biting her inner cheek, she ignored his stares and promptly ran over to Yue in the front of the saddle, thanking the Spirits that the girls were both facing forward and didn’t see what just happened. 

Sokka creased his eyebrows and glanced over his shoulder, but quickly decided to discuss _whatever that was_ later as he tied Zuko up so he couldn’t hurt any of them again. 

As Lana got comfortable next to her sister, Yue hooked their arms together while they huddled for warmth. 

Out of nowhere, the once bright white moon was replaced by a ghastly red hue. 

Everyone gasped and looked up into the sky. Almost immediately, Yue grabbed her head and groaned in pain. 

As Lana nervously held onto her sister’s shoulder, Sokka jumped across at them and asked, “Yue! Are you okay?”

“I feel faint.” Yue clenched her eyes as the pain started to throb with Lana becoming more and more concerned by the second. 

“I feel it too.” Aang muttered as he held his head with one hand. “The Moon Spirit is in trouble.”

Thinking of what she could do to alleviate her twin’s agony, Lana got up on her knees and swayed her arms towards the clouds around them, expecting them to follow her command. 

She quickly tilted her head back as she realized the water wasn’t following her will. Starting to freak out, she stared out in front of her.

Panic started to rise in her chest. ‘ _What’s going on?!’_

Sensing Lana’s distress, Yue got up on her knees and grabbed Lana while she whispered in her ear, “We need to stay calm, Aang will figure this out.” 

Lana slowly nodded her head and sat back down as Yue wrapped her arm around her. She took a deep breath, taking solace in her twin as she racked her brain for an explanation of her loss of bending. 

Trying to distract everyone, Yue calmly said, “Lana and I both owe our lives to the Water Spirits.”

Their three friends were ripped from their own thoughts and all glanced at the twins. 

Sokka leaned forward towards Yue and asked, “What do you mean?”

As Yue shared the story of their births, Lana felt sharp pains of anguish and fear burst in her chest. 

Her heart started to frantically beat out of control. She quietly panted and clutched onto her chest, attempting to calm her heart down from jumping out of her rib cage. 

Shaking it off and pretending it was just because she was nervous, she refocused on what Yue was saying as she heard her twin finish their story.

“They knew we would live, because Tui and La saved our lives… That’s why our mother named me Yue, for the moon, and Lana, for the ocean.”

Once Yue was done, Lana clasped her twin's hand that was around her shoulder and gave her a loving smile while Yue sent her back a calm grin as they relished in taking comfort in each other like they always did.  
  


~Back in the Spirit Oasis~

Holding up the bag with the Moon Spirit running out of air, Zhao clenched his fist and held it up proudly as he looked up at the deadly red moon.

“I am… a legend now. The Fire Nation will forever tell stories about me.. The Great Zhao, who darkened the moon. I will forever be remembered as Zhao, the Conqueror… Zhao, the Moon Slayer… Zhao the Invincible!”

Out of nowhere, something jumped on his head. 

As he screamed out to his soldiers to get it off of him, he tried to rip the animal away. 

Momo flew off of him and landed on Aang’s shoulder while Aang glared at the Fire Nation Admiral from across the Oasis pond with Katara, Sokka and Lana by his side. 

All of them got into offensive positions, ready to attack the Fire Nation for threatening to kill the Moon Spirit in the palm of his hand. 

“Don’t bother.” Zhao seethed across at them as he lifted his fist up to the bag with murder in his demeanor. 

With wide eyes, Aang tried to convince him to stop. “Zhao, don’t!” 

“It is my destiny! I have to destroy the Moon Spirit and the Water Tribe.” 

Aang threw down his staff and put up his hands in surrender. “Destroying the moon won’t only hurt the Water Tribe… It will hurt everyone, including you. Without the moon, everything will fall out of balance. You have no idea the chaos and destruction you will unleash on the world.”

Out of nowhere, Iroh came out of the shadows. “He is right, Zhao.”

As she watched him come into view, Lana gasped and couldn’t believe her eyes. “Iroh?!” 

As Zhao accused Iroh of his treachery to their nation, Lana turned back to look at Yue up in the saddle. They both stared at each other with worry and fear growing in the pits of their stomachs. 

“I am no traitor, Zhao, the Fire Nation needs the moon too, we all depend on the delicate balance.” Iroh hissed as he took off his hood. 

With fiery in his voice, he forcibly shoved his arm out and pointed at the Admiral. “Whatever you do to that Spirit, I will unleash on you ten-fold.” With a fierce yell, Iroh growled, “Let it go, now!”

All of them pensively watched as Zhao unleashed the koi fish back into the Oasis pond. 

As she kept an eye on the man’s face, she saw him hesitate before it turned to rage.

Thinking on her feet, Lana tried to lunge and deflect his attack, but without her bending, there was nothing she could do. 

It was too late for anyone else to stop him from slashing the Moon Spirit with a whip of fire, killing it mercilessly. 

All of them reeled up in shock and fear as the moon disappeared out of the night sky and their whole world turned a dull gray. 

They all watched as Iroh kept his promise and destroyed each of the soldiers to a pulp, yet Zhao somehow escaped and was nowhere to be found. 

As they gathered around Iroh, he slowly picked up the dead koi fish and grimaced at the burn mark surrounding its body. 

Ripping her eyes away, Lana looked into the Oasis pond and gasped as she felt her heart beat out of control again, seeing La frantically circle the pond in panic mode.

“There’s no hope now.” Yue cried as she couldn’t believe what just happened. “It’s over…” 

Aang’s rage over Tui’s death ruptured throughout his body as he entered the Avatar State. 

With thousands of voices echoing throughout the Oasis, Aang and his past lives bellowed, “No… It’s not over.”

As everyone watched in disbelief, Aang walked to the center of the pond with La floating in front of him.

Suddenly, La’s eyes began to glow a bright blue light as they both descended into the depths of the Spirit pond water.

Blue energy started to pour throughout the Oasis, flowing out and into the city. As they all reeled back in shock, a giant Koizilla erupted into the air with Aang in the Avatar state, floating in the center. 

After seeing Aang and La start to defend their city from the Fire Nation, Iroh placed Tui’s body back into the Oasis pond as he prayed for a miracle. 

Katara leaned over his shoulder and sadly whispered, “It’s too late… It’s dead.”

Glancing around to see the Princesses he had missed for over six years, Iroh’s eyes went wide as he realized something they could do to amend Tui’s death.

“Wait, Princess Yue…” Iroh sadly looked at her before his next words came out of his mouth.

“You have been touched by the Moon Spirit…. Some of its life is in you.”

“You’re right…” Yue glanced down at the ground in realization. “It gave me life… Maybe I can give it back.”

“Wait… What! NO!” Lana wrenched Yue by her shoulders and gripped them as hard as she could.

Out of pure shock, Lana shakingly screamed, “No, Yue! Wh-What are you talking about?!” 

“Lana, listen to me, I hav-”

“I said NO!” Lana tore her eyes away from Yue and threw a venomous glare at Iroh over her shoulder as she roared, “No one is sacrificing her! Do you understand me?!” 

Turning back to plead with her twin, Lana started to tremble.

“Li-Listen Yue, y-you aren’t going to do this!” 

Yelping at the top of her lungs, she hastily racked her brain. “We.. we will find another way. We can-”

“Lana, please…” Yue cut her off and covered one of her twin’s hands gripping her shoulder and slowly brought her other hand to rest on her cheek. “Listen to me.”

Watching her twin start to break down, Yue couldn’t stop the tears from cascading down her own face.

“If I don’t do this, our tribe will cease to exist… Our people will not be able to survive this battle…”

Lana reeled back at the thought of not living with her twin in this world, and felt like she was being punched in the gut over and over again as she panted for air. 

As she watched her twin panic more and more, Yue tried to give her another reason without breaking down, “Lana, without the moon, our people won’t be able to waterbend. Our culture, our way of life, our bending… Everything you have worked for will be gone.”

She placed her other hand from Lana’s shoulder to cup her face as she gave her best friend a sad smile, “You won’t be able to waterbend and help save the world.”

Furiously shaking her head, Lana wanted to tear this idea to shreds from Yue’s mind. 

Her voice began to thunder throughout the Oasis. “No, I won’t let you sacrifice yourself!” 

Lana’s anxiety started exploding up into the clouds. “Do you think I care?! I swear to you Yue, I’ll give up my waterbending for you! I-I rather have you than my bending, please! Please don’t do this!” 

“I have to do this, Lana.” Yue calmly whispered, trying to soothe Lana from her agony. “It’s my duty, I have to do this.”

“No, Yue, no! Let me do it!” Lana’s voice quavered as she gripped her twin’s hands off of her face and fell on her knees before her. 

She begged as the soreness in her throat threatened to take her voice away.

“Please… I rather do it myself than have you die… I love you too much, Yue.” 

As the three others painfully watched as the sorrowful conversation transpired between the two halves of one whole, Sokka cried out to help Lana reason with Yue.

“I won’t let you do this either!” He grabbed one of Yue’s hands from Lana’s deathgrip. “Your father told me to protect you!” 

Glancing at Sokka and realizing this gave her the perfect chance for a distraction, Lana jumped up off the ground.

She lunged forward towards Iroh and hastily placed her hands on the dead Koi fish held in his hands. 

Yue shireked out in fear, “No, Lana! Don’t!” 

Lana held her hands in front of her for what felt like forever, clenching her eyes as tight as she could, waiting for the inevitable light to take her to the afterlife.

Yet, nothing was happening.   
  


As Lana looked up to Iroh, her chest started to rapidly pulsate when she saw the devastated frown he held for her. 

Snapping her head around to everyone else, she choked on the air in her lungs as she kept a hold of Tui's body. 

“Why isn’t anything happening?!” 

Trying to bargain with the Spirits themselves, Lana screeched up into the sky, “Please let me do this!” 

Feeling hopeless in her time of need to protect her other half, Lana fell to the ground and bursted into tears. 

Watching her twin crumble to pieces, Yue threw herself to the ground to caress her. 

“Lana… We both know that you were blessed by La… And I was blessed by Tui.” Yue calmly wiped one of her sister’s tears away. 

Trying to stay strong for the both of them, Yue’s eyes threatened to pool over knowing what must happen next. 

She thickly swallowed the lump in her throat and looked deeply into Lana’s eyes. “You won’t be able to sacrifice yourself for the Moon… It gave me life and I must give it back.” 

Lana grasped Yue’s hands holding her face and had to ask one more time. 

She quietly muttered, “Please… I don’t- I can’t just let you do this.” 

Lana reached out and swiped a tear from her twin’s face.

“What am I gonna do without you, Yue? Yo-You’re my soulmate, remember?!”

Yue gave her a comforting smile as she lovingly whispered for only her twin to hear, ”I will always be by your side, every step of the way. You will always be my soulmate, we are in this together… Forever.”

Gently pulling herself away from Lana, Yue slowly stood back up and walked towards Iroh. 

Both Lana and Sokka jumped up to try and stop her as Yue placed her hands on Tui’s dead scales.

As a bright white light flowed from under Yue’s hands and out from Tui’s body, Yue slowly closed her eyes to let a few tears stream down her face. 

Lana gripped her head with both hands as she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Fear and dread at losing her other half bursted through her body.

With a groan, Yue was about to collapse to the ground when Lana let out a pierceful scream and caught her.

Sokka jumped to the top of Yue’s head and knelt down to caress Yue one last time. 

Panicking, Lana frantically stared down at Yue’s face. 

Without looking away from her sister, she threw her hand out to the Spirit Oasis pond, trying to force the water to levitate to her command. 

Yet, the water did not come to her. 

Out of absolute pain and fear, Lana glared around to look at everyone as she shrieked, “Why isn’t it working?! I need to heal her!” 

As Lana sobbed over her sister’s body, she pushed her head down into Yue’s parka, praying to the Spirits her tears could heal her instead somehow. 

Out of nowhere, Yue’s body disappeared in thin air. 

Frantically searching for Yue, Lana crawled around in shock. 

Suddenly, Tui’s body brightly glowed a radiant white around them. 

Everyone stared with wides eyes while Lana bolted onto her feet and ran up to Iroh with Tui in his hands. 

Iroh hastily got up from off the ground and gentily placed Tui back into the Oasis pond with Sokka, Katara and Lana devastatingly watching Yue and Tui now bonded for eternity. 

They all sat back as the pond beamed a luminescent energy, when Yue suddenly floated up into the air as an eternal, beautiful Spirit. 

Lana covered her mouth from her devastation at seeing her other half floating over to Sokka, telling each other goodbye with one last kiss. 

Drifting over to Lana, Yue moved down to cup her twin’s face. “I will be with you too, Lana... Always.” 

With one last kiss on Lana’s forehead, Yue smiled at her and lovingly said, “I love you to the moon and back.” 

With that, Yue faded out into the sky to restore the moon to its bright glow.

As her shock left her body, Lana started to uncontrollably shake. 

Feeling unnatural, burning rage from losing her twin, Lana sobbed and screamed at the top of her lungs as she dropped to her knees in agony.

From her forceful wrath, the surrounding glaciers in the Oasis collapsed all around them in response to Lana’s fury and uproar. 

With her hands and knees now on the ground, she slowly started to move her hands to her lap as madness slowly overtook her whole body. 

She clenched her eyes as tight as she could, feeling her rage slowly become unleashed inside of her.

Katara, Iroh and Sokka were all watching Lana as her agonizing emotions slowly started to change the air around them. 

Inching closer to her to comfort her in her time of need, Sokka shakily whispered, “L-Lana?”

Just as he was about to touch her shoulder, Sokka gasped and jumped back as Lana snapped her neck towards him. 

Her face had completely changed into a violent, merciless look of revenge. 

Yet, what scared him the most was that she now had pure dark blue glowing eyes that could kill a man by just looking at her.

Slowly, she rose up from the ground and crept out of the Oasis, leaving the Water Tribe siblings and Iroh in fear and shock behind her.

As Lana walked through the city, her body automatically sensed where La dropped Aang off from their Koizilla entanglement. 

Slowly, she stared down at the canal until La found her. 

As the blue glowing water appeared before her, Lana calmly jumped onto La’s wave and let the Ocean Spirit bring her to where they both needed to be.

  
  
  


~On a bridge within the NWT City~

As Zuko and Zhao battled back and forth, neither of them could get the upper hand in their fight.

Feeling rage build up inside of his body from Zhao’s taunts, Zuko forcibly punched out his wrath, pushing him further and further back. 

With one final fire blast, Zuko threw him down to the ground. 

As he was about to jump back up to his feet, Zhao narrowed his eyes above Zuko and gasped when he saw the moon glowing a bright white light. 

“No! It can’t be!”

Suddenly, a massive, glowing water hand swelled above them on the bridge and started to close in on them. 

Fearing for his life, Zuko rolled out of the way before he could be scooped up while Zhao couldn’t get out in time. 

Getting consumed by the blue energy surrounding him, Zhao was lifted into the air as he tried to get out of its deathgrip. 

Staring at Zhao in terror, Zuko jumped on the ice railing and called out, “Take my hand!” 

But instantly, his breath left his lungs as he looked down at the canal and saw Lana floating above the water with burning, dark blue eyes, controlling the water hand with deadly force. 

In shock, Zuko couldn’t do anything as he stared at her with wide eyes and slowly moved his hand to cover his mouth. 

Lana gritted her teeth so hard she thought all of them were going to break. She twisted her hand to turn Zhao around to see who was going to defeat him. 

Once and for all. 

As soon as Zhao saw her, he gasped and screamed out in terror. 

Out of pure rage, Lana whisked a few fingers across the air to have La cover his mouth with a frozen strap, effectively silencing him so that he could hear her loud and clear. 

Spinning in the canal, Lana rose her arms as she pulled herself up into a waterspout in order to be eye level with the monster that ripped her other half from this world. 

Panicking and thrashing in La’s hand, Zhao jutted out one of his arms to firebend at Lana. 

Yet, no flames bended out of his hand, as Lana slowly shook her head and pulled one of her hands up from her side directly at him. 

She pushed her arm out painfully slow, then jabbed her hand out to clench her fist as fast as she could. 

Out of nowhere, Zhao wailed out in pain through his frozen strap over his mouth at the lack of control in his arm, instantly feeling it broken and displaced from his shoulder. 

With that, La moved the water surrounding him to fully encapsulate him so that his firebending wasn’t going to be an option again. 

Moving within her water tower, Lana narrowed her eyes at the pitiful man, and angrily fumed at what he had done. 

Rising to be higher than he was, La and Lana joined voices.

“For your actions here today and for killing my twin and my yang, you will be punished for eternity and will never see the light of this world again. You will suffer the consequences forever.” 

Slowly, Lana lowered both of her arms back to her hips as she directed La to drag Zhao under the water, never to be seen again with only his muffled screams of mercy echoing throughout the city. 

Feeling the powerful energy dispersing off of her being, Lana dizzily swayed in the waterspout. 

Sensing that she was about to collapse into the water, La picked Lana up before she could fall and placed her on a water pedestal.

Slowly bringing her onto the bridge, La’s wave gently settled her down onto the icy ground where Zuko was still standing in horror. 

He watched as the burning blue energy escaped Lana’s eyes as the Ocean Spirit’s hand removed her from it’s grasp. 

Staring down at Lana’s body half in terror and half in awe, Zuko didn’t seem to even notice the way La gazed at Zuko.

As the Ocean Spirit decided to spare him from the same fate as Zhao, La couldn’t help but threaten him. 

As a breeze came through the air towards Zuko, a soft voice warned, “She is the shining light in all of your darkness… But, harm or betray her again, and she will become the worst of the hurricane.” 

Unknowingly to Zuko, the Ocean Spirit whispered into Lana’s ear at the same time only for her to hear. 

“Yue will be with you always for eternity. I’ll be in the Spirit World to keep her company forever, Lana, until we meet again.” 

As La returned back to the canal below them, Zuko stared with wide eyes as he watched the Spirit flow up the stream, back to its rightful place and to its new yang in the Spirit Oasis. 

Shaking himself out of everything that just happened, Zuko whirled around and dropped to his knees in front of Lana.

Even if she just scared him to death at the raw power she just held, he couldn’t stop the words the Ocean Spirit said from playing over and over again in his mind.

‘ _The shining light in all of my darkness.’_

 _  
_ He stared down at her with heavy eyes, taking in how peaceful she looked now out of that state of rage. 

He slowly reached out to softly caress her face.

Ripping him away from his thoughts, he suddenly overheard Water Tribe warriors start to search the city for her.

Thinking as fast as he could, he knew he couldn’t just leave her. Zuko slowly lifted Lana up in his arms to take her somewhere safe. 

Sensing that she was now being carried, Lana barely had the energy to slightly open her eyes. 

When she finally pushed her strength to the limit, she looked up to see golden bronze eyes that had been ingrained into her brain ever since she was a little girl. 

Falling in and out of consciousness, Lana believed she was in a dream as she slowly lifted her hand to stroke Zuko’s left side of his face. 

Not even paying attention to her as he sneaked in and out of the city streets, her touch on his scar made me stop in his tracks. 

His eyes widened as he saw Lana barely looking up at him with a small smile until her eyes hastily closed and her hand fell down onto his chest. 

Tears swelled up into his eyes as he kept going through the city, feeling guilty for hurting her yet again… But also sorrowful for Yue’s untimely death. 

Even worse, he could only imagine the full pain Lana would experience when she woke from her unconsciousness.

Laying her down on the palace steps, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching as he started to sneak away to meet Iroh at their shores to finally escape the city. 

Taking one last, yearning look at her resting body, he couldn’t stop the thought that raced through his head.

_‘How can someone so beautiful ever be the worst of a hurricane?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Yue with my whole heart, so this bandaid had to be literally torn off of my body to post this. 💔
> 
> It’s been exactly a month since I started writing this story, so I just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for reading my fic this far, and for all of the kudos and comments! It means the world to me 💕
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter and how Lana is going to handle the aftermath of the siege if you want me to love you 4ever
> 
> Next Chapter is almost done and will be published before Monday night!


	20. The Aftermath of the Siege

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter inspired by: "To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive - to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before." -- Rollo May
> 
> TW: Mentions of burns/injuries

Wheezing for air, Lana bolted up out of her unconsciousness with no clue where she was. 

As she panted in and out, she looked down and realized she was sitting on her bed, back in her bedroom alone.

She winced as a piercing headache made her head dizzy and heavy like a rock as though it was sinking miles and miles under the ocean waves at the speed of light. 

Looking around in her room, her eyes landed on Yue’s bed a few feet away from her. 

The reminder of the lack of light and happiness that Yue’s presence used to bring into their room struck her like a lightning bolt, straight to her heart. 

Lana clenched onto her chest as tightly as she could. Her lips started to tremble as flashbacks from the Spirit Oasis streaked into her mind. 

Turning around in her bed, she slowly got onto her knees and grabbed her pillow. As hard as her body would allow her to, Lana screamed bloody murder into it.

Muffling her wails of pain until her lungs and throat felt like they were made of glass. 

_So close to shattering to pieces, just like she was at that moment._

Shakily sitting back on her knees, Lana tilted her head up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, refusing to let tears fall as her throat threatened to tear apart once she let the floodgates open. 

She couldn’t help but think if she started to cry in that moment, that she would never stop. Right then and there, deciding to numb herself to stop the pain from taking over her soul.

Finally dragging herself off of her bed, Lana wobbled over to her wooden vanity and clutched onto the sides for dear life. She sluggishly forced her neck to pick up her head that seemed like it weighed impossibly heavy to even lift. 

Jumping back, Lana gulped at the reflection of herself staring back at her in the mirror.

Softly fanning her hand out to lightly clasp her throat, she took a small step closer to get a better look at herself. 

What she didn’t expect to see was how her eyes were absolutely bloodshot.

A dangerous red surrounding her dark blue pupils showing how the veins to her heart were pulled and tugged around herself as if they were ripped straight out of her through her eyes. 

Glancing over her shoulder, Lana saw a cup of water next to her bed. She swayed her left hand over her right shoulder and drew the water from the cup to her will. Holding the ball of water in her hands, she waterbended herself two healing gloves and placed them under her eye.

As she closed her eyes, visions of the night before couldn’t stop replaying over and over again in her head. 

Throwing her hands back down onto the vanity, Lana let out a yelp and gulped for air. As she tried to breathe as best she could, she thought of what she could do to distract herself from the pain. 

Ripping open her eyes, a thought echoed into her mind. 

‘ _If I can’t heal my own wounds…_ ’ 

Needing to leave their once shared room filled with love and bliss, Lana quickly threw on her parka and fixed her hair.

Taking one last look at her reflection, she numbed herself yet again to mask and hide her pain away before she promptly fled. 

  
  


As she walked out of the palace, she kept her head down to stop herself from noticing all of their people staring at her with gazes of sorrow and mourning for her twin. 

It took all of her strength not to glance up, but she knew if she did, she would explode on impact. 

Unfortunately, she couldn’t control the gasps and whispers she heard as she walked through the city streets. 

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Princess Lana.”

“I can’t imagine what this must feel like for you, Yue was so brave.”

“We pray to the Spirits that Yue watches over us in this dreadful time.”

Mutters of condolences and traces of apologies seemed to be chasing her like a hungry wolf in the night with no escape. 

Until finally, she arrived at where she knew she could distract herself for the time being. 

A place where she could help her people from the destruction of the Fire Nation. 

Walking into Yagoda’s healing hut, no one seemed to even notice her presence until someone gasped and nudged Yagoda’s side. 

Yagoda whipped around with wide eyes as she looked at her twin granddaughter. Even though her heart was already broken from losing Yue, her heart began to crack more and more as she looked at Lana with such numbness. 

Walking up to her Nana, Lana couldn’t even look her in the eyes. “Who needs to be healed next?”

Yagoda grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze. Knowing her all too well, she didn’t even bother to say anything as she pointed to one of the warriors. 

Lana walked to a table and picked up one of the water skins, then floated over to the man with an empty mask she wore that told no one of her despair, just a face with a mission in mind.

Lana couldn’t stop telling herself just to focus on healing others of their pain. 

‘ _Do not stop, just keep going_.’

Because thinking of trying to heal herself at that moment felt like running around the world in a second. 

Impossible.

As she pulled out the water from the water skin, she wrapped it around her hand and placed it on the man’s arms that were covered with burn marks.

Even though the warrior knew Princess Yue had sacrificed herself for their whole tribe, he couldn’t help but admire the strength her twin was showing in such a time of need. 

It gave him the courage to hold in his pain like she was.

Little did he know that she was blocking the horrific thoughts from entering her mind, hiding away to not let the world know her suffering.

As she finished up his healing session, Lana went straight to the next cot with another warrior coated with slash burns and gashes from the battles.

She kept her mind at bay as she constricted her thoughts. 

_‘Next warrior… healed, onto the next.’_

_‘Next patient… healed, onto the next…_ ’ 

From cot to cot, she didn’t look at anyone in the eyes. 

She knew that her eyes would betray her soul and show everyone how broken she felt inside.

Yet one by one, all of their pain and injuries were taken away. 

As Lana focused on her healing, she got lost in her mission and didn’t even realize there was no one left to heal until she glanced around the hut. Not wanting anyone to come up to thank her or say sorry to her because guilt would’ve eaten her alive, she left without even a whisper of goodbye.

Letting her feet guide her to wherever they wanted, she didn’t even bother to glance up to see where she was going. 

Yet again, murmurs and whispers surrounded her as she walked through the city. 

Until suddenly... there was nothing but silence. 

Looking up to see where her feet had brought her to, her shoulders dropped in realization.

Her abandoned training area. 

Glancing around, hallucinations of her own blissful moments in time with her other half trickled through her mind. 

_Happier memories where she and Yue would run after each other, laughing together in bliss._

_Happier memories where Lana had accidentally fallen from trying out new moves and hurting herself, just to always have Yue there to help her back up._

_Happier memories where they would just lay in the center of her safe haven entangled in each other’s arms, only to stare up at the sky and tell each other the animal shapes they saw in the clouds above them._

Lana gripped her parka over her chest as a hole in her heart grew more and more until it felt like half of it was ripped out of her body. 

With dusk slowly creeping into the night, she shakily looked up to the sky. 

When the faded moon came into her line of vision, she was yet again reminded of Yue’s bravery and ultimate sacrifice for their people. 

Vivid recollections of last night came crashing into her mind, drowning her in the Fire Nation’s endless merciless actions of not only what they did to her people and city, but for taking away her own twin’s short life. 

As the memories raced through her with vengeance, the rage and hatred she felt towards them exploded inside of her. 

Clenching her fists by her sides until she thought they were going to break, the need to rid her body of this resentful energy overpowered anything she ever had felt before. 

Lana hastily ran to the middle of her abandoned area and forced the frozen ground to follow her overwhelming control. Pulling up ten water tentacles circling around her, she threw and slashed ice daggers into the buildings around her with all of the power that seeped out of every pore in her body. 

_Ripping through the building walls just to see something break other than herself._

Moving her fists back to her sides, she tightened her hands to small fists, forcing all of the water tentacles to freeze into ice spears. 

One by one, she screamed out battle cries as she picked up the spears and propelled them into the buildings. 

Once there were no spears left to throw, she bowed towards the ground and rose her arms up to create a water ring around her. 

Bringing her arms close by her sides, she took in a deep breath before she quickly shoved her arms out with her fists, just to shatter the ring with dozens of ice shards exploding around her.

Spinning around, she then lifted herself into a water tower high up into the air. 

Glancing around her area, she saw the long forgotten remains of the water fountain where she first discovered her bending and raced towards it.

Just to demolish it to pieces. 

Continuing to destroy the area in her waterspout, she realized she just couldn’t stop as she created more and more destruction of the place she loved the most _for_ the person she loved the most.

_For her other half that made her whole._

That thought crushed through her soul as if it cut through her like a dangerous blade. Grabbing her head out of pure pain the thought brought on, she dropped herself out of the water tower. 

She let out a bloodcurdling scream and slammed her fists into the ground as she landed, forcing an ice earthquake to detonate throughout the arena. 

Holding onto the ground with all of her strength left in her body, her chest hastily heaved as all of the air she had ever inhaled couldn’t find its way back into her lungs. 

Out of nowhere, her shoulder was lightly touched. 

As she flinched away from the feeling, Lana whipped around on her back with her elbows resting on the ice, letting out a loud gasp when she looked up to see who had touched her. 

Her mother looked at her with sad, swollen eyes and calmly brought her hand away from her daughter, but held it back out as if Lana was a scared, wild animal she hoped she could help. 

Lana’s lips started to shake and pools of water in her eyes threatened to spill over as she stared at Soma. 

Suddenly, she jumped into her mother’s arms and sobbed into her chest. 

Even though she wanted to stay strong for the both of them, Soma couldn’t stop from crying with her daughter as they both mourned the loss of Yue. 

Feeling her endless pain of what happened exploding out of her like a waterfall crashing into a river below, Lana finally let someone be there for her to make the hellish nightmare of their reality all go away. 

Devastation gripped her heart as she was held by her mom when she felt like the world around her was ignited into flames. 

Hearing her choking herself from all of her sobs, Soma soothingly cooed soft whispers into Lana’s ear to calm her down. 

Unknowingly to Lana or Soma, Arnook and Sokka raced up to the entrance of the abandoned area after they heard Lana’s screams echo throughout the city. 

As soon as they saw Soma and Lana huddled together, they came to an abrupt stop. Seeing Lana like this, Sokka’s eyes widened as tears started to collect in his eyes. 

Sokka couldn’t help but look away in shame. 

Before the last battle, he had promised Arnook that he would protect his daughters with his dying last breath. 

As he turned and glanced back to listen to Lana’s cries, he realized at that moment he had failed... twice. 

He shook himself from his sorrow and mentally promised himself that he would do anything in his power to shield her from her pain. 

Arnook sadly glanced from his family to Sokka. He gently put his hand on his shoulder and nodded his head, telling him it was okay to leave to go back to Katara and Aang. 

Sokka gave Arnook then Soma and Lana one last look before he turned away and left. 

Watching him leave, Arnook turned back and looked towards his wife and daughter on the ground, allowing them their moment of grief and waiting for the right time to join them. 

As she noticed Lana’s breaths become more and more quiet, Soma slowly pulled away from her to hold her daughter’s face in her hands. 

“Listen to me, Lana.” Her mother wiped her face from all of her tears as she comforted, “We will never be able to replace Yue… And we will miss her forever, but we will see her again. She’ll be waiting for us in the Spirit world, my love… with open arms and a longing heart.”

Lana looked at her mother with watery eyes as she shakily whispered, “B-But… I just- I feel so alone… I feel like I am drowning. I-I just don’t know how to continue on without her.” 

“Lana, my love, your bond and love for each other will never end.” Soma softly smiled at her daughter. “Neither of you could ever leave each other’s side… even if she is not with us in this world anymore.”

Lana cried out and closed her eyes as she took in her mother’s words, letting them soak into the holes in her heart.

Soma took one of her hands away from Lana’s face as she said, “You will always have pieces of her with you.”

Taking her white strip of hair from the rest of her head, Soma lifted it up to show Lana. “Here.”

She then placed her hair back down and settled her hand on Lana’s chest. “And here, my love… Always and forever.”

Soma took a deep breath as she continued, “You will never be alone when you have Yue watching over you, and people who love you by your side.” 

Lana looked at her mother as the realization of everything she had said slowly started to make sense to her, even if she still noticed the burning rawness in her heart. 

At that moment, Lana and Soma noticed someone walking over to them. They looked over to see Arnook with tears in his eyes as he got closer to them. 

He slowly got down onto the ground to cradle both of them in his arms, taking comfort in his family as they all grieved their devastating loss of Yue.

As they all huddled together, Lana looked up to the night sky. 

The last of Lana’s tears rolled down her face as she truly felt Yue’s presence around their family as the moon shined brightly down on them, soaking each of them in her love.

  
  
  
  


After hours of mourning with her parents, they all finally returned to the palace late in the night. 

As she got inside her bedroom, Lana leaned against the closed door and clenched her eyes as tight as she could. 

Peeling them open to look around, her eyes landed on Yue’s bed. This time, Lana walked over and picked up Yue’s pillow and held it against her chest. 

Hugging the pillow that smelled just like her twin, she pretended it was Yue giving her another hug to make everything feel like it was going to be okay. 

Gently placing her pillow back on her bed, Lana stepped away to take off her parka and walked back over to her vanity to get ready for bed.

Taking a deep breath, she looked into the mirror. 

Gasping for air, she almost fell over as she saw her golden necklace still clasped around her neck.

Flashbacks of Zuko carrying her while she was in and out of consciousness came to her mind. 

Grabbing her head with her hands, Lana couldn’t stop her mind from showing her the moment they shared as she touched his scar before she passed out again. 

She slowly placed her hands back by her side as she glanced back up into the mirror. 

Anger and betrayal raced through her as she remembered him throwing her into the pole… for trying to capture Aang… for being the Crown Prince to such a hateful and malicious nation.

She took one of her hands and grasped the necklace with a tight fist, and gradually started to pull it away from herself. 

As soon as it felt like it was cutting into the back of her neck, Lana stared at herself while a battle raged on in her mind. 

Despite the screams in her head to rip it off of her and throw it into the depths of the ocean, Lana’s heart just couldn’t do it. 

She let go of the necklace and threw her hand down onto the table, glancing back up to see the necklace still around her neck. 

Lana stared down to her chest as she took in the sun and moon charm that rested within the golden chain. 

Swallowing her rage away, she held onto the charm and the opposite side of the necklace. 

She slowly moved the charm to the back of her neck, allowing herself to still wear it but not be reminded of _him_ every time she looked in the mirror.

Glancing over her shoulder, Lana looked at Yue’s empty bed, wishing she was there to ask her twin, ‘ _What should I do next?_ ’ 

As she tore her eyes away from her bed, she walked over to the balcony doors and threw them open. 

Looking up to Yue in the night sky, Lana soaked in the moonlight, contemplating what all of this meant for her and what she should do.

A wave of realization washed over her, as if Yue sent her the message herself.

She threw back on her parka and grabbed her bedroom door, slowly opening it to peek her head out. 

Checking to make sure no one was in the hallway, Lana sprinted down the corridor, out of the palace and straight to the guest huts. 

Walking up to where she knew she needed to be, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Inching herself into the doorway, Lana looked around and saw Katara, Aang and Sokka all packing up their stuff to get ready to leave in the morning.

She fully stepped through the door and cleared her throat, making them aware of her being there. 

Each of them turned towards the noise and yelled, “Lana!” 

They hastily gathered around her with everyone not knowing really what to say at that moment. 

All at once, the three of them jumped on her in a group hug. Lana slightly smiled at not feeling so alone with their arms wrapped around her. 

Stepping away from the group hug, the three of them all looked at Lana with curiosity in their eyes. 

“I want-“ Lana paused as she collected all of her strength. With a fierce voice, she looked at them and said, “I need to join you on your mission to end this war.”

Sokka, Katara and Aang all glanced at each other, making Lana nervous, before they all jumped into the air and cheered, “Yes!”

Aang walked over and put a hand on her shoulder as he beamed, “Of course, Lana! We would love for you to join us!”

Katara jumped onto her and gave her another hug, “This is so incredible!” 

“Welcome to our little team, Lana.” Sokka nudged her side. With a smirk, he wanted to get her to laugh as he continued, “As long as you calm the pranking down just a smudge.”

Lana covered her mouth to muffle her laughter and was about to speak when Aang asked, “Will you be ready to leave tomorrow?”

Her eyes went wide as she realized she definitely wasn’t since she just thought of all of this right before getting to their hut. She sheepishly started to rub the back of her neck.

“Uhhh… Yeah, I should probably go pack.” With an awkward chuckle, Lana said goodbye to them as she practically jumped out of the hut. 

Once she was on her way back to the palace, she looked up to the moon and whispered, “Oh boy, Yue… Mom and dad are going to kill me…” 

With that, she sprinted as fast as she could to get back to her room. 

  
  
  


As Lana whipped open her bedroom door, she ran to her dresser and started throwing clothes onto her bed. She hastily started to pack her Water Tribe parka and robes into bags as quickly as possible. 

From being so focused on remembering everything she needed, she didn’t hear the door slowly creak open. 

“Lana, what are you doing?”

Whipping around in shock and fear, Lana gasped as she looked at her father in her doorway. 

“Uhh…” Racking her brain, she glanced around the room and was about to lie when she looked back at her father.

At that moment, Lana realized she was done with all of the lying and sneaking around. She finally just wanted him to know the truth. 

“I am packing.” She said as she turned back to her clothes and continued to stuff them away.

“I can see that.” Arnook replied as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Why are you packing?”

Lana dropped the clothes from her hands and clenched her eyes shut as she took a deep breath. Whipping around to face her father, she answered him with strength in her voice. 

“I am going to join the Avatar on his mission to save the world and end this war once and for all.”

As his mouth opened to talk, Lana instantly thought he was going to yell at her and deny her this. She hastily interrupted him instead. “I have to do this! You can’t stop me, this is what I need to do.”

Arnook held up his hands in surrender as he calmly said, “Lana, listen.” 

“No, you listen!” Lana stepped closer to him, trying to get him to understand. “I-I couldn’t protect Yue, I have to be able to protect the person who is going to save our world- I need to help all of them save the world!” 

“Stop, Lana… Listen to me.” 

“No, we have seen first hand what the Fire Nation is doing to the world. I-I can’t just stay here knowing what is happening!”

Arnook stepped closer to her and was about to speak when she cut him off yet again. 

“I know you think it’s dangerous, but if Yue died for nothing then I might as well have too!” 

“Lana, enough!” Arnook yelled across the room to finally get her to listen to him. 

She glanced down at the ground, fearing that he was going to forbid her from joining Aang, Katara and Sokka on their mission. 

Arnook took a deep breath before he finally had the chance to tell her what he was going to before her freak out.

“I want you to join the avatar.” 

Reeling up in shock, Lana trembled, “W-Wait… What?”

Arnook sadly smiled at his daughter, not wanting her to leave them but in the end, he knew this was something she needed to do. 

“I know I’ve held you back before but I’ve learned from my mistakes… I want you to join the Avatar and our Water Tribe brother and sister on this journey.“

Happy tears now formed in her eyes as she listened to her father’s words. 

Running across the room, she jumped high off the ground and wrapped her arms around Arnook’s neck. 

Arnook held onto his daughter as he glanced at the empty bed next to them. 

He closed his eyes as he held back tears. “I want you to know… that your mother and I are so proud of you… We know how strong you are and we know that you are going to do such amazing things.”

As he let her down on the ground, he swelled with pride as he lovingly touched her face. 

“Thank you, dad…” Lana grabbed his hand. “I thought you were going to be upset.”

“How could I be upset?” Arnook smiled down at her as he replied, “My little trouble maker is going to help save the world.” 

  
  
  


The next morning, Arnook and Soma held onto their daughter for dear life as they all said goodbye to each other. 

Soma quietly whispered in Lana’s ear, “Promise me you’ll come back to us.”

“You’ve said it a thousand times, mom.” Lana giggled in her mother’s ear as she comforted, “I will always come back.”

With one last kiss on the cheek from both of them, Lana started to walk away when she hastily glanced over her shoulder to give them one more cheeky wink to remember her by. 

Turning back around, she raced to catch up with Katara, Sokka and Aang as they walked onto the sailing ship with some of the Water Tribe warriors and waterbenders heading to the South. 

As the Water Tribe ship sailed out from the Northern Water gates, Lana stood at the back of the boat, staring up at her parents and tribe members.

Taking a deep breath and holding back tears in her eyes, she waved goodbye, mentally promising her tribe and herself that she will avenge Yue’s death. 

As the city slowly started to fade away, Lana let out a shaky breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. 

Right before she was about to turn around, someone put their arm around her shoulders. 

Jumping from not expecting this, she looked next to her and saw Sokka as Katara came up to her other side and squeezed her hand with Aang right beside them.

As she glanced around her friends, she softly smiled and turned towards Sokka when he started to speak. 

“So, are you ready for one hell of a wild adventure?”

Lana looked out over the miles and miles of ocean calling her name to adventure and justice for her soulmate, for her tribe, and for the world. 

She glanced from Aang, to Katara and back up to Sokka with determination in her eyes.

With a smirk playing on her lips, she only had one word to say to him. 

“Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHH 
> 
> Book 1 is now complete!! My heart is literally exploding. 
> 
> Thank you to all of you amazing readers! I love writing this story so much, it gives me so much happiness and with all of your INCREDIBLE love and feedback, it is the extra special cherry on top. TYSM for everything. 💕


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